


Finders Keepers

by beautifulmask



Series: Finders Keepers [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, Comedy, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Getting Together, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2019-09-30 02:10:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 67,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17215052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulmask/pseuds/beautifulmask
Summary: Clarke is in for one hell of a ride when she accidentally saves the life of a professional killer Lexa.Let’s face the facts: it’s a rom-com.





	1. Hit and Miss

**Author's Note:**

> This story is very loosely based on the movie "My Beloved Enemy".

Clarke was furious. Not because of the screaming match she just had with her mother, or because it happened in front of over thirty of their coworkers. That was nothing special. The reason she was so upset was her dad. She never fought with him, not like this. Jake Griffin was always the calm presence between Clarke and her mother, the peace maker.  Until this night at least. During this particular time Clarke needed his support he went out of his way to tell her off and that hurt more than anything.

Clarke's whole body still shook with anger over the memory. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened as she replayed the fight in her head  for the twelfth time. It took all of her willpower not to push the gas to it's limits and let go of some of that pent up adrenaline, the road was far too wet to risk something like that. All she wanted was to get home, close the door on the entire goddamn day and paint. Losing herself in art for a good few hours and create something beautiful for a change. That was what she needed.

It was dark already and little lumps of snow were hitting her windshield. How she wished to be home already...  Then without any  warning a person stumbled onto the road right before her car. Clarke hit the breaks, everything in her screaming, the car couldn't possibly stop fast enough. Panic making her steer in an attempt to avoid the unavoidable. Everything was happening too fast to follow, her car swirled on the road, a dull thud against the side of her car and then nothing but quiet. All of Clarke's anger was gone, blood freezing fear settled in it's place. Single thought was blinking in her mind. _Did I just kill someone?_

She rushed out of her car. "Don't be dead, don't be dead!" She prayed, while trying not to slip on the wet asphalt. Even on the dark road Clarke immediately saw it. She really hoped it wasn't real. But there was no denying it now. A body was lying at the side of the road only ten feet behind her car. Alone and motionless, flicks of snow falling and immediately melting on it.

She ran towards it. “No, no, no, no, please don't be dead!"

The body was thin, lying on it's side... a woman. Clarke sunk to her knees next to her. This couldn't be happening. She reached out to turn the woman over, maybe she was still alive. That little spark of hope was like a flicker of light in cold dark ocean in Clarke's chest.

Then for a third time that night everything changed in a single heartbeat. As soon as her hands touched the stranger, the woman jumped to life, tackling Clarke to the ground. All Clarke managed was to yelp in surprise. When she suddenly found herself being pushed into the cold asphalt. A set of wide green eyes was blinking at her from a dirt covered face. She tried to move but the woman pressed something terribly cold against her throat at the motion. Dread ran through Clarke when she realizes that it was a blade of a knife, she was going to die on the cold wet ground.  

But the woman didn’t slit her throat. She just stared at Clarke for a few terrifying heartbeats then she blinked a couple of times and her eyes lost some of that frenzied look they had a second ago.

"You're not Azgeda." she grunted, her tone somewhere between accusation and a question.

"A... what?" Clarke asked, utterly lost. "Look you're just confused, okay? You got hit by a car, but it's fine, I'm not going to hurt you." She continued, hoping that the woman would be reasonable. Which might have been a little too much to ask for from a crazy, dirt covered, stranger, who was roaming local forests with a knife, but hey; Clarke has always been an optimist.

Some of her words must have struck a chord with the woman because only a second later she was scrambling to get off from Clarke while mumbling, "Need to get out of here, they're after me." The words were probably meant for more to herself than anything else.

Clarke stayed on the ground, too confused by everything to get up. Whatever relief she felt over not having a knife to her throat anymore disappeared again when the woman fell to the ground for a second time after taking only two steps away. The sound thump of a body hitting the road was most unpleasant. Clarke carefully raised to her feet, and leaned to check on the stranger from a respectable distance.

“Are you okay?”

The woman didn't reply, instead she attempted to stand up again, her face twisting up in pain as her body clearly protested the movement.

“Stop it! You're hurt. You’re just making it worse!” Clarke chided her, her fear forgotten in face of those pathetic attempts to regain balance.

The woman ignored her, and with a pain filed roar tried to raise to her feet again. She almost made it that time, until her leg slipped and she fell flat on her face instead. Clarke moved to help her but she was met with a familiar knife.

"Stay away!" The stranger grunted, trying and failing to stand up on her own.

Clarke watched the woman struggle to stand, unsure of what she should do. How did she ended up here? So close to her home, yet unable to get there? It all happened so fast but knife or no knife she couldn't just leave the woman there. She was clearly disoriented and whatever her problem was it most likely wasn't helped by getting hit by a car.

“It's okay.” Clarke said soothingly with her hands up. Not entirely sure who she was trying to convince here. "I'm not going to hurt you," _again_. "Just calm down and let me help.” 

The woman's efforts to keep balance were valiant. She finally managed to stand but she was shaking terribly and it was clear that it wouldn't be long before she fell again. Clarke caught her eyes, messy black paint was smudged all around them for some reason and the eyes themselves frantic. 

“Just please let me help! Let's get to my car, and I'll drive to the hospital,” Clarke pleaded with her.

The woman stared at her and then she let the knife slip from her fingers. For a second Clarke thought that the woman finally saw reason. But then her knees buckled and she was falling over again. Clarke caught her before she could hit the ground.

“It's okay, you'll be okay, just let me help.” 

The woman mumbled something, but she did grip onto Clarke and with joined efforts they manage to get her in the car. Clarke secured her with a seat belt in the backseat and quickly fetches a blanket from the trunk to help keep the girl warm.Through it all the woman didn't say anything but Clarke could feel her eyes following every move she made.

“The knife,” the girl whispered when Clarke was wrapping the blanket around her.

“What?” Clarke asked. The woman was still shaking, probably on the verge of passing out but made the effort to speak anyway.

“I dropped the knife. Can you… I can't lose it!” she pleaded, clearly panicking over the idea of parting with it. Like a child whose security blanket was being taken away.

Clarke groaned. Why wouldn't the night end? Why was she so soft? _I can’t believe I'm actually doing this_ , she thought.

“Okay. Just wait,” she said, and against her better judgement went to look for it.

The knife was not hard to find. Moonlight was hitting it just right, making it shine. Almost like it was calling after it's owner. Owner who stumbles onto the road in the middle of the night, with a knife, dressed in black, and with face covered in black paint. Owner she left in her car with the engine running, unsupervised. She looked back to the car, panic setting in. It was still there.

Up until now she was so worried about the woman that she somehow forgot the part where she was threatening her with the very same knife Clarke was now holding. She gulped. Part of her wanting to abandon the car and the woman all together. But that idea was quickly dismissed. The girl in there needed help and she was going to get it.

Clarke marched back to the car and slipped to the driver's seat only sparing a glance to review mirror. The girl was still awake, frowning at Clarke as if it was all her fault. _It is your fault, you hit her with your car,_ Clarke’s mind mocked her.

“I've got the knife,” she assured her passenger. “You'll get it back once the doctors check you over.”

The woman was pale and at the verge of sleep but her focus returned at the mentioning of doctors.

“No hospital!” she snapped at Clarke. She sounds weak but very determined.

“What, you clearly need to go to a hospital, you're in shock.” Clarke reasoned only to have the girl roll her eyes at her.

“I’ve been shot, of course I'm in shock. But if you take me to a hospital I'll be dead by morning. You said you'd help me, I don't call getting me killed faster helping me.” 

“I hit you with my car. You weren’t shot.” The damage was clearly worse than Clarke thought.

“Do you think I’d fall in front of a car like that if I haven't been shot and weak from blood loss?” The girls voice, although groggy, was surprisingly determined. “Look, It’s not serious. You can help me. Just please no hospital.”

“I… this really isn’t…” Clarke tried but found it hard to argue with the wide eyes and desperation the other girl was showing.

“Please! Promise me, no hospital!”

“Okay, I promise.”

_What the hell did you just get yourself into Griffin?_

_~~~~_

It was only a fifteen minute drive to Clarke’s house. She tried to keep the girl from falling asleep on the way. Unfortunately her passenger kept dozing off. Clarke had to shake the girl awake when they got there. Getting her from the car to the house was another challenge. Luckily the woman managed to carry most of her own weight when she had Clarke to lean on. So they did make it to Clarke’s living room after a bit of struggle. The girl collapsed on the couch with something between groan and a whimper. Maybe she was actually human after all.

In the warm light of her living room Clarke finally could take a good look her. For one thing she really did have an insane amount of black paint around her eyes, creating some sort of messed up mask. Yet, if Clarke looked passed all that it became obvious she was also a young, tired woman in a lot of pain.

Clarke then went on to use her semi-complete nurse training to move things along. The girl actually listened to most of Clarke's demands, although she stubbornly refused to give her name or explain anything. Clarke checked for any head trauma, finding nothing out of the ordinary. The girl got incredibly lucky, maybe she didn't even have a concussion.

"Are you a doctor?" The girl asked, once Clarke reported her medical opinions.

"Dropout."

Clarke moved on to the girl's bloody arm. Even with her very theoretical medical knowledge it quickly become obvious that her guest actually wasn't lying about having been shot and, to Clarke’s horror, the bullet was still inside.

As a kid Clarke and her friend Welsh use to play operation all the time. Clarke loved it and was always a real brat about beating her friend at it. Karma sure was punishing her now.

Which was when the argument started again, the girl stubbornly refusing to go get help from anyone other than Clarke.

“I don't have the proper equipment. What do you want me to do? We need to take you to a hospital.”

“No. Hospital!”she growled. “Just get me some scotch tape and tweezers, I'll do it myself. And vodka also bring vodka!”

“This isn't a game; You could die!” Clarke was wiling to risk someones life like this when hospital was an option.

It seemed like the girl would  keep arguing, she even opened her mouth but then she nodded in defeat, finally coming to her senses.

“Okay, you're right,” she took a deep breath “I'll do it myself. Can I use your phone?”

Clarke felt the ball of nerves in her gut begin untangling itself. _Thank god, I won't have to play a field nurse!_

”Yeah sure,” she handed the woman her phone. “It's going to be-“ she started, but before she could finish the woman smashed her phone against the floor and crushed it's screen with her heel for good measures.

“What the hell! Why did you do that? ” Clarke fumed.

The girl looked at Clarke with the same emotionless mask from before. 

“I can't go to the hospital. The man who shot me would find me and kill me before I could even fill out the first form,” she explained calmly.

“This is crazy. I can’t just- no.” Just because Clarke wasn't afraid of blood didn't mean she had any desire to poke around someones flesh in her living room.

“You said your name was Clarke, right?” She did on the drive over.

“Yeah.”

“You’re my only chance, Clarke, please! I’ll tell you what to do. Just help me with this and then I'll disappear and you’ll never have to think about this night again.”

Clarke knew that that was nonsense this night would definitely be hunting her dreams for years to come. But what choice did she have?

So she did it. It was messy and bloody but luckily the mess was limited to the girls shoulder, nowhere near any major artery. Clarke hoped that she wasn't making more damage than the bullet with her highly unorthodox medical treatment. But her patient didn't complain, much. Mostly she was just really inpatient. Telling Clarke to “just do it” and “get on with it Clarke.” By the time Clarke pulled the last stitch she was completely exhausted. She bandaged the girl up and checked her work for the last time before taking a good long swing of the vodka. 

“Okay, this is the best I could do. I still think we should have an actual doctor take a look at you...”

The girl was barely conscious and was simply starring at Clarke blankly. When Clarke’s words finally reached her, she glanced to the wound and back at Clarke again, gawking openly.

“You did it,” the surprise was clear in her voice. 

“Yeah, what did you think I was doing this whole time? Clarke snapped.

The girl gave her a weak smile. “Honestly, I thought that you would pass out, or just kill me by accident. But you actually did well!”

“Then why wouldn't you let me call a real doctor? We didn't have to go to a hospital I literally know other doctors! If you didn't ruin my phone we could've called one here!”

The girl shook her head. “No-one can know. I can't trust anyone.” As she spoke she folded herself more comfortably on the couch.

“You won't tell me anything else?”

“I want to sleep now, “ the girl mumbled, her eyes closing already.

Clarke sighed. “Me too.“

“Hey, Clarke?” she asked without opening her eyes.

“Yes?”

“Thank you, for what you did. You saved my life. I’ll get one for you.“

Clarke wasn't sure what the girl meant by that however it was too late to ask because the brunet was already fast asleep.


	2. Debts

Clarke woke up in the comfort of her bed with that sort of nice cozy feeling only Saturday morning can offer. No alarms, no rush. Day completely free of any obligations before her. She reached for her phone, ready to waste the whole morning in bed. Only to find that her phone wasn't on the nightstand as it should be.

The unsettling memories from last night came rushing back and ruined everything. Her phone was in pieces somewhere and there was a very good possibility that an injured woman was lying downstairs, assuming she didn't die during the night. Which was actually a realistic option because Clarke could've easily missed something like internal bleeding. Clark groaned into the pillow. Why was this her life?

She didn't hear any suspicious noises coming from downstairs when she went to use the bathroom so she decided that whatever was waiting for her down there could probably wait until after she showered and put some clothes on. There were specks of blood were on her sink, must've been leftover from when she tried to wash off the blood from her hands last night. Clarke added having to clean the whole house on the list of things to do today, great. 

Clarke walked downstairs with fake confidence in her steps. _This is your house! You did that girl a favor, she better be grateful apologize for your phone and answer all your questions._ Clarke's inner pep talk ended when her eyes landed on an empty couch.

The possibility of the girl being up before her didn't really occur to her asleep. Although she didn't actually know what time it was. Why didn't she own a normal clock? That way she would be able to know what time it was even when some psycho decides to destroy her phone. She could just check her computer for the time. Except that it was still in the car. Clarke rubbed her temples, already tired again.

She refuses to simply randomly call out for the girl. What would she even say? _Hey person that bled all over me and my couch? Are you still here?_ That was just awkward.

So Clarke performed a quick search of the house. Finding nothing, literally, not even the mess from their midnight game of operation. Everything was spotless, things back in their rightful places, not even a single drop of blood to prove that the girl was ever there. The blanket Clarke threw over her guest last night rested neatly folded on the couch.

_She did say she would be gone in the morning._

Clarke even checked the trash for remains of her phone but apparently someone took out the garbage. How could she even do all that? She was shot, hit by a car and whatever else she might've been through before that, so how could she clean so much mess and just walk away, getting back to the city on food would be a nightmare. 

Still pondering on it, Clarke decided to search for things online, see if any shootings were reported last night as well as finally find out what time it was. Clarke put a coat on and walked out of the front door only to freeze in her tracks. The car was gone.

Of course the fucking car was gone! Her phone, her car... And didn't she leave her wallet in the car with her computer? Of course she did, she was too concerned about a stranger she hit to bring everything inside. The stranger who had no hesitation to rob her blind. Clarke should call the police. Except her phone was missing and presumed dead. She could go ask the neighbors to do it for her. They would just love that, smug bastards. Always saying how it was dangerous for a young girl to live alone and how she should get a cat to keep her company.

Clarke was angry with herself, angry with that girl, the injustice of life in general, and of course her mother because she was always angry with her mother at least a little. In the end she decided against going to her neighbors because she really didn't need to deal with them on top of everything.

So she went back inside. Considering her next move. The most urgent thing on her mind being coffee. Luckily that bitch didn't take her coffee maker. Clarke made herself a cup, adding extra spoon of sugar because she was out of chocolate, or any food for that matter, and was in a desperate need of some sugar therapy.

Warm cup of goodness in hand, Clarke sat in the long chair in the studio. She always felt better there, surrounded by paintings and bookcases. It was the place that was just hers. Which was a little ridiculous since she lived alone. But the studio was the only part that felt like the real Clarke.

Clarke sighed. Maybe she could take a bus to the police station? This was going to be the worst day. Then a strange sound outside catches her attention. Was there a car pulling up to her house?

None of her friends were supposed to come over. She went to investigate reaching the hall just in time to see the front door open. Clarke’s jaw fell when the brunette from last night casually walked in. She just waltzed into Clarke's house like she owned the place, in a fashionable black coat, red scarf and two brown grocery bags in her arms, her eyes immediately fell on Clarke.

“Good morning Clarke!” she smiled brightly. ”Did you sleep well?”

“Eh..I.. You..” Clarke said intelligently.

The Brunet wasn't put off by it in the least, gently closing the door behind with her foot, before announcing. “I’ll take these to the kitchen and we can have breakfast. Are you hungry?” she adds, already walking towards the kitchen, expecting Clarke to follow. Which she did.

_What the hell?_

“What the hell is this?” Clarke demanded, when they reached the kitchen and the girl started putting away the groceries as if it was perfectly normal.

“I was hungry and you didn't have any food! Plus, I've had an errand to run,” the girl explained over her shoulder.

There was a lot of things Clarke wanted to yell at the girl about, however one concern won over the others.  
“What do you mean an errand? You got shot last night! You can't just go around driving cars and carrying groceries! You should go see a doctor!”

“What that? That is nothing,” the girl smirked. “Trust me I've had way worse.”

“That is nothing to brag about, and you stole my car!”

“Borrowed, but okay, I'll ask you next time.” The girl responded casually as she unpacked a box of strawberries.

“Next time?”

“Yes,” she nodded absently and before Clarke could tell her that there definitely wouldn't be a next time, she continued. “How do you like your eggs Clarke?”

“Eggs?” Clarke wasn't sure that she heard that right.

The girl sighed, holding up a carton of eggs she just unpacked for Clarke to see.

“I’m making us a brunch, Clarke,” the girl explained, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “So yes, how do you like them?”

Clarke just stared at her. What ever power put this incredibly mind baffling person into her path probably meant it to be a punishment for a crime Clarke committed in her past life. On the other hand now that the subject has come up Clarke realized that she was in fact quite hungry.

“Scrambled,” she sighed.

“Perfect. Can you toast the bread?”

Clarke somehow ended up making breakfast with the mystery girl, who continued to order Clarke around as if it was completely normal. It wasn’t long before they were sitting together at her kitchen table, a real homemade breakfast between them. Which was also a first, Clarke haven't actually use the stove since she moved in. Now there were eggs, bacon, toast, fresh strawberries, and a salad because apparently: _“Your fridge looks like it never seen vegetables in it's life, Clarke.”_

Although the food was delicious, Clarke had far too many questions flooding her mind to enjoy it.

“What’s your name?” she asked finally, knowing that the girl would probably ignore her again.

The girl looked up, searching Clarke’s face for answers to an unknown question. After a minute of intense silence she seems to find whatever answer she needed.

“Lexa.”

Clarke took a deep breath, it actually worked.

“Okay, nice to meet you Lexa.” She hesitated, but since she already started, she might as well push her luck a bit more.

“Also I'm sorry I hit you with my car. Now, could you please explain to me who shot you, why couldn't you go to the hospital and had to destroy my phone just to make sure I won't be calling the ambulance to save your life?”

She knows she's taking a risk here, Lexa just might pull a knife on her again or maybe she’ll storm out and disappear for good this time. Clarke wasn't sure if that would be a good thing.

Lexa only shrugged. “Occupational hazard,” and continued eating. _Great._

“Yeah, I’ve had your blood all over me last night I’m going to need a little more than that.” Clarke pushed angrily.

Lexa gave her annoyed look, and okay, even without the paint she could still be terrifying if she wanted to be. But Clarke stared right back, she wasn't going to back down this time.

Few minutes passed before Lexa gave up, briefly glancing down at her plate before giving Clarke a tired look.

"You don't want to know."

"And last night I didn't want to operate you on my couch but here we are.”

“Alright.” Lexa sighed. “I was out on a job last night, but someone sold me out… I couldn't make a clean getaway. If it wasn't for you I'd be dead.” she spoke quietly, but her voice was firm, giving up a cold list of facts and nothing more. “I had to leave this morning to get some information and check in with my people.”

Out on a job, check in with her people…

“So you're a criminal?” and yeah Clarke did see that one coming.

“My work is less than legal yes.” Lexa nodded.

“So last night was a robbery gone wrong?”

“A hit gone wrong.”

“A what?”

“A hit. I was supposed to kill someone last night but it was a trap. I almost didn't make it out.”

“Kill someone!? You're a hitman!? You kill people for money?”

Lexa shrugged. “I told you, you didn't want to know, Clarke.”

Clarke opened her mouth but failed to find anything to say, before Lexa continued in lighter tone.

“Anyway, now that that's out of the way. We should get to the important things. What to do about you.”

Clarke tensed, suddenly all too aware of the cutlery casually left on Lexa's plate.

“Do you always cook for people you're about to kill or am I special?” Clarke asked, forcing herself to sound casual and probably failing miserably.

“What? Kill-you?” Lexa blinked. “Oh no, I'm not here to hurt you Clarke. I wouldn't do that.” She was shaking her head vehemently. “It's like the opposite actually.”

“You're here to do the opposite of killing me ? That doesn't even make sense!” 

“Don't be so literal, Clarke! I'm here to kill someone for you!”

“What?”

“You saved my life. I'd like to return the favor. So I've looked into you, and a PR manager for Griffin enterprises is not really a life threatening job, but you must have some problem I could solve for you! A cheating boyfriend, annoying boss, arch nemesis. Just tell me what is causing most pain in your life and I'll take care of it for you! A freebie, to show my appreciation."

Clarke stared at Lexa, she couldn't be saying what Clarke thought she was saying.

“You want to kill someone, for me?”

“Yes,” Lexa nodded. “But I don't have to kill them, blackmail, scare, break a bone, make their life hell, whatever you need!”

“I don't need anything like that!” Clarke protested.

“Well, you're going to have to work with me here Clarke” Lexa sighed. “Because I have a debt to pay and I take these things seriously.”

Clarke swallowed nervously, the conversation was getting even more insane than she expected.

“I was happy to help, well not happy,” she paused. “But I did help and you don't owe me anything. The breakfast was more than enough, really.”

Lexa shook her head again.

“That's not how this works, Clarke.” She fluently stood up. “I’ve got to go take care of something, but I'll come by later, so think about it. I always pay my debts.”

Clarke had no words. She watched the girl leave, heard the front door open and shut while trying to process the conversation and still not actually understanding what just happened. Then she realized that the girl had the keys to Clarke's car and was unlikely to just leave on foot. That got her to jump to her feet and run out after her.

But outside was no sign of Lexa. The car was parked in it's place. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Lexa must have been aiming to be as unpredictable as possible, she probably teleported away just to keep things interesting.

Clarke found the car keys later, innocently laying on the coffee table. She decided not to go to the police. The whole situation was too unbelievable and what evidence did she have? Groceries in her fridge and a missing pieces of a phone? She wasn't scared of Lexa coming back. Maybe she should've been,then again she still vividly remembered Lexa's face when Clarke asked if she would kill her. And the assassin seemed genuinely upset over the idea. Clarke was willing to risk it. Lexa probably wouldn't be back anyway. Or so Clarke told herself repeatedly.

The rest of her day was surprisingly normal. She sorted out work emails, watched a movie. Every time she heard a car drive pass she held her breath. Expecting Lexa to appear or the police to kick her door in and arrest her for aiding and abetting a dangerous criminal but it never happened.

Clarke also tried to check Lexa's story online but there were no shootings reported anywhere in town. Maybe Lexa was lying about the whole thing. Maybe she made up the story to mess with Clarke’s head.

She didn't need to go anywhere thanks to Lexa's grocery run so she ate a late lunch at home and ended up painting for most of her evening.

Painting was the only thing that actually helped to get her mind off things. Only thinking about the paint and images in Clarke's head. Getting it out, getting it right. Clarke didn't feel this inspired in months. She doesn't even need to think about which colors to use, its pure instinct, emotion in every stroke and she's loving the vibe of the painting. She got so lost in her work that she didn't even notice footsteps approaching.

“It's beautiful, Clarke.”

Clarke jumped away from her canvas at the sound, quickly turning around to face very amused Lexa, leaning in the doorway.

“Lexa! What the hell?!” She yelled, her voice higher than normal.“You can't sneak up on people like this!”

“Sorry, sneaking up is a work requirement.” Lexa chuckled.

“No, just, no! You can't just let yourself into my house and scare me like this!” Clarke fumed.

At least Lexa had the decency to look a little bashful at that.

“I knocked, but you didn't answer… I though. It doesn't matter.”

Clarke noticed the girl was trying to slip something into her coat.

“Is that a gun?”

“No?”

“Lexa! Show me your hand!”

“Okay, it is a gun, but don't worry about it I just saw the lights on, the door was unlocked and you weren't answering. I called your name when i walked in…”

So she rushed out with a gun in her hand.

“Okay new rule. No guns in my house, is that clear?” 

“Alright, no guns.” Lexa nodded easily. Too easily for Clarke's liking.

“What are you even doing here?”

“I came by to see if you thought about my offer.”

“The answer is still no.” Clarke scoffed. “I don't need your services. And you really should've gone to bed instead, you don't look so well. Have you been on your feet all day?”

Lexa was pale and her hands were shaking. Clarke realized that Lexa maybe haven't been leaning on the door frame just casually but because she needed it's support to stay upright.

She also noticed how young Lexa actually looked. She might have been running around with guns and scary stories of merciless killers, but before her now was a barely adult who was in way over her head, refusing to get a proper treatment.

“I'm fine.”

“Obviously.” Clarke sighed, carefully placing her paintbrush in the water to keep it from bending.

“Let's go to the kitchen so I can take a look at your shoulder.”

Clarke checked Lexa over and changed her bandages. She saw nothing wrong with the actual wound but Lexa herself didn't look so good.

“You might be getting a fever. Please tell me, you went to see a doctor.”

“No, but I'm fine, I've had my tetanus shots, you cleaned the wound last night and I took a penicillin shot just in case this morning.”

“You took penicillin? By yourself? Are you insane?”

“I had it lying around.” Lexa shrugged, like that explained everything. “I’m fine I just need to sleep it off.”

“So why did you come here?” As hard as Clarke tried to understand why Lexa was in her house she couldn't see any sense in it. Full minute of silence passed between them and when Lexa finally answered, her voice was slightly shakier than earlier.

“I wanted to check on you. I've promised to do something for you. You know.  I wanted to know if you thought of a target.” 

“I don't want you to kill anyone for me Lexa! Actually I don't want you to kill anyone ever! And even if I did want you to kill someone, you can barely stand you're in no state to be coming over for tea, much less going around killing people!”

Lexa seemed quite offended by that.

“I could kill a man if I wanted to, Clarke!”

“Sure you could. Seriously Lexa, this could have waited,” she paused, realizing what she was missing. “Lexa, do you not have a place to stay?”

“I… do,” she frowned. “Of course I have a place to stay, Clarke. I just came by to check on you. You seemed really shaken up this morning, and I want to repay my debt to you as soon as possible. But since you haven't decided I'll take my leave.”

_Okay just let her go, she can sleep in her car if she wants. It's none of your business._

“Lexa, wait!” Clarke couldn't do it. “You can't drive like this, you could hurt someone! I have a guest room so just stay over.” there it was, _you're such a softie Griffin._

“I can drive just fine, Clarke." Lexa insisted. "However… if it makes you feel better.”

Of course this was how she played it. Clarke rolled her eyes.

“Uh come on, I'll get you fresh sheets.”

The following smile on Lexa's face caught Clarke off guard. It was nothing like the mocking smirks from before, this was real, truly pleased, soft smile. Clarke went of to prepare the room, still thinking about it.

Clarke made sure that Lexa had everything she needed before retreating to her own room closing the door and leaning against it.

She was letting Lexa stay over, what were the odds of Lexa killing her in her sleep? What was she even thinking. That wasn’t actually the biggest concern. The problem was that Clarke wasn't as worried as she should be. Yes, Lexa had a gun, claimed to be a murderer, and all Clarke could think about was her damned relieved smile.

She didn't lock her door before going to sleep, taking the risk that Lexa would cut her throat when she slept. Which reminded her.

Clarke checked the bottom drawer of her closet. Lexa's knife was still there. She hid it there when Lexa passed out last night and completely forgot about it. It was really important to Lexa the other night.

Clarke turned the knife around in her hand, it had a beautiful metallic handle, tiny flower design around it. The blade itself was short but wickedly sharp and could be folded back into the handle. It wasn't big and it was incredibly light. It also didn't go with anything else Lexa had, it wasn't scary at all for one. All in all it seemed more as an aesthetic choice than a weapon although it could probably do a lot of damage in skilled hands.

Clarke put it back into her closet, she would give it back to Lexa in the morning. If she was still alive by then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thank you to everyone who is still reading and even bigger thank you to those of you who leave me a nice comment, you guys rock!


	3. Honey, we're in love!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Saturday everyone.

Clarke sighed as she watched the morning sun dance around her guest room, getting progressively bolder and bolder, filing the room with daylight and chasing the night away. She watched the light reach the pink duvet that she added on top of Lexa's blanket few hours ago. The girl herself was still sleeping soundly, curled up around her pillow like a cat. Clarke was far less comfortable, having slept in a chair by the window instead of her own bed, every muscle in her body was protesting that decision now.

The night didn't go as expected, then again nothing else did the whole weekend, so perhaps it was time to change her expectations. Clarke went to sleep in her own bed but she had trouble falling asleep, her mind far too occupied with the assassin in the next room and the knife she hid in her closet. How much of Lexa's story was true? Hell, she didn't even tell her the whole story. And what if whoever shot Lexa found them?

Then she heard the girl crying out through the shared wall and she was on her feet in a second, rushing to see what was wrong. She found Lexa thrashing on the bed in a feverish sleep, she was burning up, crying or yelling from her dreams. Clarke couldn't make any sense of it. She couldn't wake her at least not enough for Lexa to be lucid. So Clarke spend her night taking care of her and periodically napping in the chair.

Lexa seemed fine now, so Clarke should go back to her own bed, the idea of and actual bed with a real blanket and pillows was quite appealing. The only problem of that plan being that she would have to actually move her body to the next room which seemed to be impossible feat. However she would do it, she was going to overcome her laziness and get up -right after she closed her eyes again for just a second to gather her strength.

Clarke woke up in a chair with Lexa staring at her from the bed.

“Lexa, you're awake,” she yawned. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” she replied, looking at Clarke curiously. "Did you sleep here Clarke?”

“I guess you don't remember last night?” Clarke started, it wasn't surprising, the girl had been completely out of it after all. “You had a pretty high fever and were completely delirious… I got you to drink water and some cold compresses to cool you down. You kept saying don't leave, so I stayed.”

Lexa looked away from her, suddenly incredibly interested in the sheet patterns, her face little redder as well. “I-  Thank you, Clarke... you didn't need to do that,” she said finally.

“Don't mention it.” Clarke waved her off. It was becoming more and more obvious that Lexa was not used to accepting help and when she did receive it she didn't know what to do with it.

Lexa nodded and then she got out of the bed, making Clarke's breath catch in the process. Lexa slept only in her underwear and a top that left little to the imagination. And really gunshot wound aside, that kind of body should only appear in tv or magazines where it could be attributed to the powers of modern technology making people unreasonably gorgeous. Lexa seemed to know exactly what Clarke was thinking of since she smirked, and turned to face Clarke in all her, greek goddess wouldn't be embarrassed by, glory.

“Whatever you did last night must have worked because I feel great!” Lexa said as she casually stretches her hands up, making her top lift up just enough to show her belly button. “I'm going to take a shower.” Lexa announced once she let her hands fall to her hips again.

Clarke swallowed, her mind still little occupied with the details of Lexa's form, maybe she could have Lexa model for her instead of killing someone...Lexa cleared her throat “Clarke.”

“Yeah?” she blinked, her own cheeks heating up.

“I'm going to shower… so you know, unless you wanna join me…”

“Right, I'll leave you to it. There should be clean towels, next to the shower.”

She almost tripped on her own feet, trying to get out from Lexa's room before she could embarrasses herself further. Lexa is the worst house guest ever, she decided.

~~~~~~~

Clarke missed her phone. Always there to tell her what time it was and plenty of social media to distract herself in uncomfortable situations. Like when she was in the kitchen enjoying a cup of coffee and instead of bussing herself on social media she was forced to think about Lexa. Clarke overcame her initial instinct to make coffee for Lexa as well. The assassin probably wasn't staying and Clarke definitely shouldn't stop her from leaving. Lexa was trouble and she wasn't her responsibility, all she had to do was assure her that there was no debt to be paid and send her off. No more taking care of her and worrying about her. If Lexa was in danger it was because of her career choices and Clarke would stay out of it.Then again Lexa clearly didn't have anywhere better to go. Could Clarke really just kick her out and wish her good luck?

She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the front door open and the unmistakable sound of her mother's voice resonated through the house. “Clarke! This is childish even for you!”

Clarke jumped out of her seat, sprinting to the door as fast as she could without breaking anything.

“Mom! What are you doing here?” Clarke demanded as soon as lays eyes on her mother who just finished hanging her coat.

“Why aren't you answering your phone Clarke?” her mom returned the question as if was perfectly normal to let herself in as she pleased.

Clarke opened her mouth to explain but she was cut off before she had the chance.

“First you, screw up the Mouth Weather deal, then you fight with me about it in a boardroom, and then you turn off your phone and completely ignore both me and your father for two days!! You have to take responsibility for yourself! ”

“Didn't you say I was getting fired?! I was waiting for my termination email!” Clarke shot back without missing a beat. With all the Lexa drama she completely forgot ridiculous her mother was being on Friday but now when she came all this way to yell at her about it all the anger rushed back from where it lay dormant.

“I never fired you! I said you could be fired for something like that and I was right you were out of line!”

“But I was right!”

“Clarke I didn't come here to talk about that we can discuss that in the office once you apologize.”

Clarke had a few things to say to that but she took a deep breath instead.

“Okay so why did you come here?” she folded her hands across her chest, trying to sound much calmer than she felt.

“To make sure you're still coming to the gala next weekend. Your father already left for Polis and help with the preparations.”

“Of course I'm coming.”

“Good and since you don't have a date I was thinking you could go with Walter Green.”

“What?!”

Her mother held up her hand “You're not coming there without a date! Ideally you should get Finn to come with you and at least pretend you're still in a serious relationship!”

“Finn? I broke up with him! I'm not asking him to be my date!”

“But your grandma liked him so much! And that woman hates everything! Plus he is such a nice man, we still haven't told her you've missed your chance there so maybe you could...”

“I'm not pretending to date Fin just to make you happy!” Clarke yelled, completely losing the last shreds of calm at the suggestion.

“Well you can't come alone Clarke. So I'll have to set you up with someone for the event at least.”

Clarke counted to ten in her head. This was not happening, she must have someone to go with. Anyone to shut her mother up! Why wasn't there a single name on her mind?

“Clarke, honey? I didn't know we were expecting company!”

Clarke closed her eyes. _Oh god no._

She turned around, and sure enough. Lexa was walking down the stairs, her was hair wet from the shower, she was wearing jeans and—Clarke’s favorite hoodie of all things.

Clarke glanced at her mother who was staring at Lexa open mouthed. In the meantime Lexa fluently linked her hand with Clarke's, stepping into her space as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Hi, I'm Lexa!” she introduced herself with a charming smile as if she didn't just overhear awkward family drama.

“Oh hello, sorry I didn't realize, I'd be interrupting.” Abby looked from Lexa, to Clarke and then at their joined hands “I'm Abby Griffin, Clarke's mom.”

“It's so good to finally meet you!” Lexa said so sincerely that Clarke would believe Lexa actually wanted nothing more than to meet and impress Abby.

“I'd like to say the same but I didn't even know Clarke was seeing someone! Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend, Clarke?”

Perfect, just perfect.

“It's not really… we just started seeing each other, mom.” Okay, yes she was going with the lie even though it was a terrible idea. Having to explain the situation to her mother in any other way would be far too difficult.

“Clarke! You have to tell me these things! Do you have any idea how much time I've spent trying to find you a date for next Saturday! Only to find out that you already have a girlfriend.”

Right that wasn't happening.

“Sorry mom. But I don't think Lexa will be able to come.”

“Come where?”

“Oh, Lexa you must! It's an annual Griffin family gala. All of our relatives will be there and between us and respectable friends of the family we raise money for a chosen charity. My husband's mother throws it every five years. And unfortunately for  Clarke to come alone would reflect poorly on our company, it would certainly effect our standing in the family. ” Abby would continue to drone on about the insane politics of the Griffin clan to pressure Lexa into submission but at this point Clarke decided that enough was enough. 

“Mom, I said Lexa will be busy!”she jumped in and was determined to kill the idea in its origins, and then Lexa had to go and open her big mouth.   

“Clarke is right, work keeps me incredibly busy,” _thank god_. “But since this is so important to your family of course I can make time.” Okay, Clarke was going to kill her. Abby on the other hand beamed with joy. 

“Wonderful! I'll tell you everything you need to know, somewhere more comfortable. Could you make us coffee Clarke I want to get to know your new girlfriend!”

Without waiting for a response Abby took Lexa to the living room, leaving Clarke petrified in the hallway. She wasn't going to survive whatever just started here.

Clarke knew that leaving her mother alone with Lexa was a terrible idea only god knew what would Lexa say to her mother. Why was the assassin pretending to be her girlfriend anyway? Clarke could hear their voices on her way to the kitchen but they spoke too quietly for her to make out any words.

She finally had two cups of coffee ready and she hurried back to joined them. When she entered the room her mother was laughing at something Lexa said, and it wasn't the controlled “of course your story is entertaining laugh” it was genuine, her whole body shaking with laughter. Usually the only person who could make her laugh like that was Clarke's father. Clarke didn't like this.

Lexa was first to notice her presence. “Honey, come sit down,” she winked, just turned enough so Abby wouldn't see the action.

Clarke ignored the shiver that wink sent through her body, setting the coffees down at the coffee table, the very same coffee table that only few days ago had a small plate with Lexa's bloody bullet on it, and uncomfortably took the seat next to Lexa.

“Your girlfriend is hilarious Clarke,” Abby praised, turning back to Lexa before she could respond. “How do you come up with these things?”

“Natural talent,” Lexa smiled.

Clarke looked suspiciously between them.

“What are we talking about?” she asked, already scared to hear the answer.

“Oh just Lexa's job.” Clarke's blood ran cold.

“What?” Clarke choked.

“Is something wrong Clarke, you look little pale?” Her mother inquired with concern.

“Clarke doesn't like my work,” Lexa jumped in. “I've been offering my services since we met and she just isn't interested.” she pouted.

“Well I'd be very interested. Our company could definitely use you!!” her mom exclaimed.

 _What?_ They did have some problems with competition but killing them off couldn't have been an option to her mother. 

“It would be my pleasure!” Lexa smiled.

Clarke's head whirled between them as she did the best she could not to start hyperventilating. How could someone like her mother be okay with this?

“Come on Clarke, we hardly have any flowers!”

“What?” Clarke asked, completely perplexed.

“Your mother is quite excited that I'm a floral designer I just couldn't resist offering to take a look around your office and give you some ideas.” Lexa explained, taking pity on Clarke or maybe she simply sensed that Clarke was about to lose it. “Plants really help created a better atmosphere in a workplace.”

“I think it's an amazing idea. We should set something up after the gala-”

“Or not.” Clarke cut her mother off. “We could also leave one person out of our business for once!”

“Clarke, don't be rude!” her mother chided her.

“Oh no, I'm the one who is overstepping,” Lexa intervened, “Clarke and I have a no business talk rule! I really shouldn't have brought it up.”

Her mom frowned at that, she loved putting work ahead of everything so hearing this was clearly a shock. Clarke couldn't help but get some satisfaction from seeing her surprise.

“Alright,” her mom looked between them her eyes settling on Clarke. “Why don't you tell me how you've met your wonderful girlfriend?”

“Oh you know-” Clarke struggled to find something to say, where does one meet fake flower-whatever, it needed to be simple, something her mother would buy without questioning it or finding out that...

“Clarke ran me over.” Lexa snitched. Clarke took in a sharp breath closing her eyes, why did Lexa hate her so much?

“What?” Abby exclaimed.

“With her shopping cart.” Lexa laughed before continuing. “We met at a grocery store, I was so focused on my shopping list that I walked right in front of her car.”

“You mean cart.” Clarke growled through her teeth.

“Exactly!” Lexa smiled at Clarke and took her hand again. “Classic rom-com meeting!” She gave Clarke's hand a reassuring squeeze. Clarke was half convinced that Lexa was only settling things down now so she could rile her up again later but she didn't let go of Lexa's hand.

As the conversation carried on Clarke found herself deeply regretting not adding any liquor to her coffee. On the other hand her mother was actually having a great time, clearly impressed with Clarke's new girlfriend because surprisingly enough Lexa was very charming when she wasn't waving around a knife or offering to kill people.The whole thing was even more shocking since Abby usually took forever to warm up to the people Clarke was dating. She didn't even like Finn for the longest time. Lexa was like the Abby whisperer, whatever they talked about before Clarke joined them seemed to cause the two women to bond. If anything about this happy smiley Lexa was real and she really was Clarke's florist girlfriend it actually would have been fun laid back morning. Instead Clarke was petrified the whole time waiting for something to go horribly wrong. However nothing terrible happened, if she didn't count getting incredibly embarrassed.

Before Abby left she made sure to tell Lexa all about Clarke's embarrassing childhood stories like that phase in kindergarten when she insisted on dressing like a lion everyday for a month, causing Lexa to coo and laugh with unhindered glee. Luckily Abby didn't have any pictures to add to Clarke's humiliation although she promised to show Lexa the photo albums as soon as Clarke and Lexa come over for diner. Which would never happen.

When Clarke finally closed the door behind her mother and watched drive off she walked back to the living room and found Lexa stretched out on the couch comfortably, still in Clarke's beloved sky blue hoodie and intensely staring at the phone in her hand. Clarke decided to do the mature thing and make her presence known by throwing the nearest cushion at her.

The surprised “Umph” sound Lexa made when the cushion landed on her face was quite satisfying.

“What were you thinking?” Clarke asked angrily.

“That really depends what you're referring to Clarke.” Lexa said, putting the cushion next to her.

“When you told my mother that we're dating.” Clarke reminded her folding her hands. Lexa didn't look rattled by her ire in the least.

“Well, I happened to overhear your argument and it seemed like you needed a date...” the girl trailed off.

“That is… Wait so you're actually going to come to my grandmother's gala?” Clarke thought that Lexa just said all that stuff to Abby to humor her, never actually intending to go through with the horrible social ordeal.

“Of course Clarke. What kind of girlfriend would I be if I left you without a date on such an important event?” she said with a smirk.

“I don't know; the imaginary kind?”

“You have that wrong Clarke,” Lexa countered, “I'm the girlfriend of your dreams if anything.”

“And a florist on the side?” Clarke questioned, making Lexa sigh.

“Did you want me to tell your mother that I'm a contract killer, Clarke?” she asked, and really what was Clarke suppose to say to that? Lexa took Clarke's silence as an satisfying answer.

“Exactly, so we're on the same page.”

“Wait, so you'll spend three days with me in Polis pretending to be my girlfriend and then we're even? No killing?” Could things really be so simple? Clarke never expected to collect on the favor from Lexa but this might actually solve everything.

“I wouldn't say even, but I won't bother you anymore.” Lexa said lightly, maybe too lightly. Would Lexa actually leave, and never come back, just like that? Despite everything she's she wasn't a bother, she complicated her life incredibly but she was also fascinating in a very Lexa way.

“Now, it's been lovely, and I'd love to take my fake girlfriend out for lunch and get yelled at more but I have to run." Lexa said before Clarke could find a way to voice her thoughts.

Clarke tried to stop her and find out more about this fake dating situation, unsuccessfully. Lexa said she had business to take care of and would be back later. Which only added to Clarke's internal conflict about Lexa's presence in her life. Was the girl going out to kill people? How was it okay for Clarke to let her? What else could she do? Lexa didn't wait for Clarke to decide and left, thanking Clarke for the help before closing the door behind her. It wasn't until later when Clarke noticed that Lexa actually stole her favorite blue hoodie. Of course she did.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Lexa carefully took off Clarke’s hoodie before leaving the car. It left her shoulder aching painfully and she felt cold immediately but it wouldn't do if she got it damaged. She already made a huge mistake by promising to be Clarke's date next week. Why did she make that kind of commitment when she probably wouldn't be alive to keep it was a mystery. However the very thought that she'd let Clarke down was unacceptable, so she simply had to make sure to stay alive for the gala . It was strange feeling, having a reason to stay alive other than pure survival instinct, truly strange. Lexa loaded her gun and checked that all of her knives were in their places, time to get some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for this week. Big thanks for reading and commenting, see you all next time!


	4. Its a terrible idea

Clarke wasn't worried about Lexa. She was annoyed. The girl just took off to go “take care of business” without giving any additional explanation and didn't come back in the evening or morning. Clarke definitely wasn't going to admit that she spend half the night listening for any sound signaling the assassins return. But Lexa never showed, leaving Clarke to wonder what she was up to. And Clarke didn't want to think about that because Lexa could be doing anything from committing mass murder or lying dead in a ditch somewhere, there was no telling.  

And of course Monday meant that she had to go back to work and try to smooth things over with her mother. It went surprisingly well. Her mother had actually cooled down about the incident although she still insisted that Clarke would have lunch with that asshole Cage and apologize sometime next week but she at least didn't antagonize Clarke about it. She even asked about Lexa and suggested that Clarke has her come along for the meeting with Cage because “She is such a pleasant girl and you'd be surely more relaxed with her around.”

Clarke managed not to burst into laughter at that but it was a near thing.

An hour later she was in her office trying to deal with everything that piled up over the weekend when a young boy showed up at her office. He couldn't be more than thirteen and with his black sweatshirt and ripped jeans he definitely didn't look like he belonged anywhere in the building, much less the top floor, Clarke had no idea how he got past reception.

He entered the office, knocking exactly once and entering before Clarke could respond.

“Are you Clarke Griffin?” he was smiling nervously.

“Yes, can I help you with something?” Clarke asked and swallowed the  _are you lost, boy?_ That was on the tip of her tongue. He couldn't have been older than fifteen and it was still not late enough for school to be over. He ran a hand through his not quite blonde hair, looking around the room and then back at Clarke curiously.  

“No, I'm just here to deliver your stuff!” He held up a small paper bag. “I was suppose to get it to you first thing in the morning but this model is actually a real bitch to get hands on. It's as good as new now though.” He said handing the bag to Clarke.

Clarke carefully took it, unsure if this was about something she requested and forgot about or why wasn't the package delivered by the usually mail guy from the office.  

She thanked the boy absently and looked in the surprisingly light bag. Inside was a phone. Clarke pulled it out, noticing that it was the exact model she use to have, except the case was a shade darker and there was a night sky pattern with tiny stars on it instead of the simple blue she use to have. 

“I changed the case for you, yours was really scratched up and then it sort of caught fire... So it wasn't really usable…” the boy rambled. “But if you really want it I can look try finding you a new one. Lexa said you liked stars though,” he added nervously.

“Lexa,” Clarke wasn't sure how to process that. “This is from Lexa.” She finally stopped examining the new phone and took another look at the kid. Inspecting him in light of the news, he knew Lexa? He couldn't be working with her, he was a child!

The boy laughed. “She asked me to fix your phone. But it's fight was long over.” he nodded to the new phone.

“This is the next best thing. And you lucked out too, I managed to save your sim and fix up your SD card so you don't need a new number and you should have everything just like it was,” he announced proudly.

“Wow that is really nice of you. Thank you, how much was it?” Clarke asked, realizing she should pay him for the effort. However the boy shook his head.

“It was Lexa's money. I only spend my time on it and I was happy to do that since Lexa usually doesn't let me help with anything,” he added frowning.  

“How do you know Lexa?”

”From around,” he shrugged. “Thank you for what you did by the way.” Clarke didn't know what he could possibly be thanking her for and the confusion must've showed because he went on to explain.

“For helping Lexa.” For a second it seemed like he wanted to say more but then he nodded to the door instead. “I've got to run.”

“Wait, is she okay? Did you see her today?” Clarke couldn't stop herself from asking.

“No,”he bit his lip glancing to the door and back at Clarke conflict showing in his face.

“Do you know what happened the other night did she tell you?”  

“Lexa isn't very chatty, she didn't really say anything…” Clarke said carefully. “Why do you ask?” What do you want to know. 

“It doesn't matter, I have to go.” the boy backed away.

“Wait you didn't even tell me your name!” Clarke stopped him again.

“Aden,” he smiled. “It was an honor to meet you miss Griffin. “ 

Well, It was less confusing than hitting an injured assassin with a car.  

~~~~

The rest of her day was far less interesting. Piles of documents and memos to write antagonized her to no end. Naturally she postponed work after Aden’s visit in favor of playing around with her new phone. It was exactly like her old one, her passwords were the same, her photos were all in there. Once she answered all the messages her friend’s piled on over the weekend, she went over her contacts as well, hoping to see a new contact listed but that was a let down. Clarke sighed. Surely Lexa was going to show up again if she was going to be Clarke’s date that weekend so it would only be polite if she gave Clarke a way to contact her but of course manners weren't in Lexa’s vocabulary.

After work she went out to dinner with Raven, part of her wanted to go straight home and see if Lexa came back, which was incredibly pathetic impulse that needed to be squashed in its origins. Lexa wasn't living with her and it wasn't like Clarke wanted her to come and invade her space anyway. Okay that was a lie. Lexa was intriguing as hell (not to mention incredibly easy on the eyes) and yes she drove Clarke crazy in many ways, but it felt good to be crazy. The past few months Clarke only went to work, back home and out drinking with Raven and the gang. She haven't realize how bored she was until the Lexa-shaped mystery launched itself into her life, it felt like she was really alive again. It was sort of like riding an extreme roller coaster or watching a horror movie. It was unpleasant realization about the state her life was in but she couldn't deny liking the rush.

“Earth to Clarke, are you ignoring me Griffin?” Clarke blinked at Raven, “Sorry, I was thinking about something.”

“Obviously,” Raven scoffed. “And I wasn't even talking about physics this time.” They were having dinner at their usual restaurant. Only thing missing was Octavia and a bottle of wine, but they saved drinking for Friday's and Octavia bailed on them in the last minute, for a third time in a row.  

“What’s on your mind, will you tell me where you disappeared to this weekend?” Raven pressed. Clarke considered telling her. They didn't start off great when they met four years ago but now Raven was actually her closest friend and it would feel good to talk about the whole mess.  

“It’s a long story maybe another time.” Clarke heard herself say. She couldn't tell Raven. Not yet, she couldn't risk making the mess even bigger. And she really didn't want to get the advice to do the rational thing and get Lexa arrested for whatever wrong things she might be doing.

Of course Raven had a nose for bullshit, the question was if she let it go. Clarke held her breath waiting if she'd call her out.  

“Whatever,” Raven shrugged, mercifully leaving the issue. “But you know I'm here for you right?” Raven said in a much more serious tone than was typical for her voice.

“O might be too busy with Lincoln to pay us any mind but we still stick together.” 

Clarke nodded feeling a wave of fondness she had for Raven, they both knew the feeling was mutually, nothing more needed to be said.

The topic of Lexa would definitely come up again. But Clarke needed to make up her mind about it first.

They moved on to discussing less dangerous topics which included Raven laughing into explain her newest project to Clarke which went completely over her head but it was nice to see her friend be passionate about something.

 

~~~~

 

She was back home just about to turn in for the night when Lexa came back. This time she actually used the doorbell which honestly freaked Clarke out. She expected literally anyone else, including the police, to ring the bell so late in the evening. when she opened the door to see Lexa's familiar shape leaning next to the bell her face mostly hidden in a shadow of the door, she frowned.

“Lexa! Since when do you use the bell?” 

“I didn't feel like picking the lock,” the girl shrugged. “So... here is the thing… do you think I could use your guests room again and maybe few more times after that.” Lexa said quickly the words coming out almost incomprehensible. “I’ll pay you, and I’ll be your fake girlfriend whenever you need-” 

“Come in.” Clarke cut her off. Lexa stopped talking and instead stared at Clarke as if she just grew a third head. Clarke raised her brow at her which seemed to get Lexa back to reality.

“I left my gun in the car, as per your no guns rule.” Lexa announced when she crossed the threshold.

Clarke lead them to the living room once again utterly confused by the assassins behavior. Ringing the doorbell, no guns… was Lexa actually trying to be respectful? It probably wasn’t a good idea to point it out though. 

“Where is your car, you never park it here?” She asked instead.  

“I don't want anyone connecting it to your place.” Clarke saw her point, if she wanted to avoid questions from the neighbors it was probably for the best.

“So will you let me stay here for a while?” Lexa asked, evidently trying not to sound nervous and failing miserably. It was sort of endearing.

“Why?”  

“Because I need to sleep and you already saved my life so I can be pretty sure you won't stab me in my sleep, unlike some people” The bar apparently wasn't set very high, but none of that really settled Clarke's mind.

“I need more than that.”  

“Will you kick me out if I don't tell you?” Lexa asked, slight smile on her lips as if she already knew Clarke wouldn't do such a thing.

“I might.”

She wouldn't. They both knew Clarke wouldn't do it, she had no acceptable way to make Lexa tell her anything.

“I’ll tell you.” Lexa agreed surprising Clarke once again. “ If you give me your word it stays between us.” It was a horrible, terrible idea, and Clarke should definitely do no such thing.

“Alright, tell me.” Clarke sat forward on the couch, too eager to finally hear what was going on to listen to her preservation. She couldn't believe Lexa actually agreed to talk.

“I need to stay here because someone tried to kill me.” Lexa paused and searched Clarke's face for a reaction as if she just shared some big secret.

“I know that, I removed the bullet, remember?” Clarke reminded her, did Lexa for get that part or something?

“Not that,” Lexa shook her head. “After I left here the other day I went to my safe house but they we’re waiting for me again. I’ve had my people look into it and someone wants me dead a lot. “

“I thought you were the hitman here.”

“I was— I am. the problem is that someone leaked a lot of information about me. Someone inside the organization I work for. Which means that I can’t go to any safe house or use my alias because I have no way of knowing how much they know. I’m handling the problem but I needed to go off grid for a while.” Lexa paused, contemplating what to say next. “ I tried getting something out of one of the people who shot me on Friday -Azgheda- they knew I was coming and set a trap for me. So last night I had a little chat with the girl who shot me but it didn't go as well as I hoped. She didn't tell me who warned them I was coming.”

That was possibly the stupidest thing Clarke has ever heard.  

“You went to the people who shot you? And it didn’t go well? How is that possible?”  Lexa frowned at her and Clarke resisted the urge to roll her eyes, this wasn't getting anywhere.

“So you still don’t know who wants you dead?”

“Most members of Azgheda certainly, and someone in the organization I work for tried to kill me at least three times now and I don't know for sure who they are yet. But I have a plan and the first step is going underground… for that I need somewhere to stay, somewhere no-one will look..”

“The suburbs, with a girl that has no connection to you at all.” Clarke finished the thought. 

“With someone I can trust.”  

They sat in silence as Clarke tried to process all of that information. 

“What about Aden?” she asked after a while, suddenly remembering the boy. Lexa was confused by the question.

“How do you even know-?” 

“He brought me my phone back today. Doesn't the fact that he knows me sort of ruin the whole plan?”

“Aden isn't the one trying to kill me Clarke he’s a child!”  

“I just-”

“He won't tell anyone about you, even if someone asked which they won’t because Aden isn’t involved in any of this either… only one person from my crew even knows he exists and I’m almost certain that she isn't the one who wants me dead.”

“Almost?” Lexa ignored the question.  

“Now that you know everything important, can I stay in your guests room?”

“Will someone try to kill me if you do?” Lexa's face hardened. 

“Clarke I'm not going to let you get hurt or dragged into any of this,” she said firmly, like it was really so simple, like she could kill anyone who dared to defy that statement. That shouldn't have been so attractive.

“I have a plan and I’ll have this sorted by Friday.” Lexa finished .

“You’ll find out which one of your friends betrayed you in four days?” 

“Yes” 

“And then you’ll kill them.” 

“The matter will be dealt with.” Lexa said resolutely.  

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Clarke considers everything Lexa just told her, all the ways this could go horribly wrong, before speaking.  

“No guns, nothing from your criminal life gets anywhere near me or my house.” she broke the silence. “Those are the rules if you stay here.”

“Thank you, Clarke.” Lexa said, with that same soft smile that followed Clarke for days last time she seen it. Except this time the smile was quickly replaced by devious grin.  

“Of course the matter of my debt to you is still unresolved, when all this is over, I could handle something for you, the date thing definitely isn't enough… Did you make up your mind about someone I could kill for you?” she asked cheerfully. 

Clarke was suddenly too tired of the conversation. “Good night, Lexa.” With that she headed back to her room. 

“I'm serious, Clarke! I’ll do it!” 

“I don’t want you to!” Clarke yelled from the stairwell, already on her way back to bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thank you to everyone who is still reading and/or commenting you guys are the best!


	5. Falling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand we're back!

Clarke needed her coffee in the morning. The few minutes of peace while she drank it and scrolled social media was absolutely necessary for her to function for the rest of the day. Speaking to her before she had her coffee was not recommended. The fact that she now had a housemate changed nothing about said rule. Which was why she only grunted in response when she found Lexa in her kitchen first thing in the morning and had the girl greeting her cheerfully. Clarke ignored her in favor of getting herself a cup of coffee. She was pleasantly surprised to find that coffee was already made only waiting for her to add enough sugar to keep her going till lunch.

She felt a little guilty for being so cold to Lexa, but pushed the feeling back, silently taking a seat at the table. Lexa seemed to get the message about Clarke morning mood because she didn't try talking to her again, focusing on something on her own phone instead. It was a quiet morning. Once Clarke was ready to go to work she left Lexa with a key which caused Lexa to almost break the plate she was washing.

“You're giving me a key?”

“Uh yeah, you can clearly get in without it but if you want to stay under the radar it might be easier if you're not breaking in every time you go out, right? “

“Right.” Lexa nodded eyeing the key cautiously as if she expected it to blow up the minute it was in her hand.

Clarke held out her hand for Lexa to take the key impatiently, Lexa took it their fingers brushing briefly at the exchange, sparking a cold shiver to run through her. Clarke wanted to kiss her, pull Lexa flush against her body, wrap her hands around Lexa's back and kiss deeply.

Clarke jerked back. Her heart was beating faster and she hurriedly left, sparing only few words about being back later. She was in a lot of trouble. She always knew Lexa was attractive, but the little moment of their fingers brushing against each other was different, than any of their contact before and it let her know just how incredibly screwed she was.

Halfway through the day and she still couldn't get the almost kiss out of her head. She could only hope that Lexa didn't notice. Luckily she came to her senses before actually doing anything, Lexa probably would've stabbed her as a response to the un-welcomed advances. Or maybe she would tease Clarke mercilessly for the rest of their time together, using Clarke's interests for her advantage, not that she really needed that Clarke was already promising to shelter a criminal for basically no reason, Lexa didn't need any more leverage. There of course was a third option of what could've happened if she did try to kiss Lexa but Clark wasn't going to think about that one. Not for a minute. Because imagining Lexa kissing her back would lead to very dangerous places; places Clarke wasn't allowing herself to visit.

It was even harder not to think about when she returned home and found Lexa making deliciously smelling dinner. She planned on having a frozen pizza but before she knew it she was at her table with homemade pasta, glass of wine in her hand and a stunningly beautiful girl asking about her day sat before her. It felt like a date, and not even a first date, it felt like a comfortable date night in with a steady girlfriend. Lexa was relaxed, she seemed genuinely interested in finding out more about Clarke. It wasn't a date Clarke knew it wasn't, it was much more likely a ploy of some kind. But she saw no harm in discussing ordinary things with Lexa. So they fell into an easy conversation. They talked about everything from the changing weather to Lexa's favorite book. They talk for hours, long after they were done with dinner. It wasn't a date, but if it were it would have been a good one. It only ended when Lexa announced she needed to get going.

“I'm guessing you're not going to tell me any more about what you're going to do?”

“It's better that way. I'll be back in the morning.”

Clarke didn't hear Lexa return but come morning hot pot of coffee was waiting for her next to Lexa who was typing away on a notebook at the kitchen table.

“Writing a memoir?”

Lexa looked up closing the computer. “That would be a fun read, but no.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Well enough.” She yawned. “How was your night, I didn't hear you come in.”

“I only got back like an hour ago. I'm actually going to go to sleep.”

“Oh okay, I’m going to be at work all day but I could get us take out for dinner on my way back.“ What are you doing? _Didn't you just realize you should be spending less time with Lexa not more?_ She yelled at herself, but it was too late.

“I'd appreciate that.”

“Great,” trouble.“Italian?”

“Whatever you want is fine.”

It was just another dinner,not a date so it was fine. Clarke was already falling for the girl one dinner wouldn’t make a difference.

~~~~~~~~~

 

Clarke was picking up the food on her way back home. Unfortunately when got back to the car she had two missed phone calls from Raven and several unread messages.

She opened the messages, expecting to read about some new drama from Raven’s workplace only to have her heart stop when she actually saw the messages.

_R u home?_

_I'm stopping by_

_Someone is in your house!!!_

_Did you get a housekeeper or are you getting robbed????_

_Griffing!!!_

_I'm checking it out_

_!!!_

_You’re definitely getting robbed_

That was bad. Raven had keys to her place as well, only lucky thing was that Lexa wasn't armed, so she couldn’t shoot Raven -oh god the kitchen knives!

She called Raven, no answer. Great and she still didn't have Lexa's number, she really needed to do something about that.

Clarke raced to the house, arriving in record time. Ravens jeep was parked by the house, the door was closed and curtains drawn only glimmer of light shining through them.

Clarke's heart was racing. It was fine. Lexa wouldn't hurt Clarke's friends... right? No police cars were around, that was little comforting. She forced herself to stay calm, she collected her things and the food and went inside.

The door was unlocked and Clarke could hear voices as soon as she walked in. She followed them to the living room.

As she got closer she could make out the words of Raven's angry voice.

“You actually expect me to believe that bullshit?” Clarke froze by the door. Whatever story Lexa gave seemed to be failing.

“It's the truth if you don't believe it that's your problem.”

“It's going to be your problem unless you tell me who the hell are you and why are you here because I sure as shit don't believe you're Clarke's girlfriend!”

Time to cut in. She entered the room. “It's okay Raven, Lexa isn't breaking in.”

“Welcome home honey!” Lexa smiled sweetly at her, and then went back to frowning at Raven, who was now glaring at Clarke with disbelieve.

“A girlfriend?” she exclaimed. “She's your girlfriend?”

“Yes. Why did you-”

“How come I didn't know about this?” she motioned to Lexa.

“Ahh, it is a new development.”

Raven narrowed her eyes, she wasn't buying it. No wonder, she knew everything about what happened with Finn. Lexa might have been a good liar but Raven knew too much about Clarke to be fooled.

“Lexa could you give us a minute?”

Lexa looked between them. “I'll take the food to the kitchen.”

Clarke gave her a grateful smile. Hoping that Lexa didn’t take offense to being sent away. She seemed fine, smiling back at Clarke as she took the food from her.

“What's going on?” Raven asked as soon as Lexa left the room.

“It's a long story.” Clarke sighed. Long story she would much rather keep to herself, knowing that Raven definitely won’t approve.

“You're not dating.”

“No, but Abby thinks that we are. I needed someone to come to Polis with me.”

“Okay, but why is she in your house now?”

“That is our deal. Lexa is pretending to date me and I'm letting her stay here for a few days until she can go back to her flat.” Clarke was starting to get good at this cover story thing.

“Do you expect me to believe you just let a random stranger into your house?” Raven folded her hands, frowning at her.

“I know it was stupid okay, but Lexa is a good person and she needed help.” Clarke was panicking she needed Raven to understand but she couldn’t find any explanation, the full truth definitely wouldn’t be helpful.

“How do you know her?”

“I might have hit her with my car.” Clarke admitted.

“What?”

“It barely touched her! I steered it away, she's fine. She didn't have health insurance and I couldn't risk getting in trouble over this so I took her here, and then she didn't have anywhere else to go and Abby showed up to yell at me and it just sort of happened.”

“Wait so you hit a homeless woman with your car and now you're living together and pretending to date?”

“She's not homeless, she's just... “ hiding, on the run, being chased by a bunch of assassins but she is also an assassin so its fine. “- in a fight with her roommate.”

Clarke’s explanation did little to settle Raven.

“That's so irresponsible Clarke, I don't care how cute the girl is you can't just let random strangers into your house, she could be a serial-killer for all we know!”

“I know, I know. But Lexa isn't a…” she paused not knowing how to finish the sentence. “Look it was stupid, but if she was going to kill me or robbed me she would've done it already so please, just let me deal with this in my own.”

“She could be waiting for a better opportunity.” Raven argued.

“I know. But I can't kick her out, she did nothing wrong so far and she even got mom to back off, All I'm asking is that you give her a chance.”

“Fine, let's go meet the ‘girlfriend'. But she is getting the shovel talk.”

~~~~~~~~

Lexa was waiting for them in the kitchen casually mixing salad to go with the take out, however after the few times Clarke actually seen the girl happy and relaxed it was shockingly obvious to her that Lexa was tense, all of her walls were up like she was expecting a fight. Clarke sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Dinner was an awkward affair. Raven kept asking Lexa questions, about herself, despite Clarke's efforts to stick to casual subjects.

“I just want to know what she does for a living Clarke, I'm not asking her for her social security number.” She definitely wanted to know that as well.

Lexa didn’t hesitate, replying as calmly as ever.

“I'm a flower designer, firms hire me to go around their office and find out which flowers would do best in their office spaces.”

“That's your actual job?” Raven raised a brow.

“I'd give you my business card but I ran out.”

“What's your company called?”

“I'm a freelance consultant, but you can look at my website. Forest-interior-designs. If you want to know more,” she replied challengingly.

“Interesting,” Raven said neutrally but Clarke could see the wheels turning in her mind. “Does that pay well?”

“I get by.” Lexa said, causing Raven to narrow her eyes at her.

“But not enough to get a hotel room?”

“I've told her how you're helping me out with Abby in exchange for letting you crash here while you work things out with your roommate.”

Lexa raised a brow, “I'm very thankful for Clarke letting me stay here. Its much more comfortable than a hotel and the company is better as well.”

“So you do have money for a hotel?”

“Raven.”

“You have to excuse me for having some concerns about you.”

“Of course.”

“So what was the problem with your roommate?”

“That is personal.”

“Really? You don't think that the person you're staying with has the right to know what happened to your last roommate?”

“Are you suggesting I've murdered my last roommate and I'm hiding out here from the law?” Lexa asked mockingly as if that was the most ridiculous notion she ever heard.

“People do fucked up things and I don't like you this close to my best friend without knowing who the hell are you.”

“Raven that's enough!”

“Clarke she could be dangerous!”

“Raven I -“

“She's right.”

“You have no reason to trust me.” She stood up. “I should go, I’m sorry.”

Lexa seemed really upset and Clarke wanted to run after her, wrap her up in a hug and tell her it was okay. But it wasn’t her place and there was upset Raven to think of so she let her go.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

The night was colder than she expected, Lexa regretted not stealing more of Clarke's clothing when she kicked herself out of the house almost an hour ago, which was a dumb move. The again, staying with Clarke has been a bad idea from the start. The last few days have been much better than Lexa dared to dream and also a special kind of torture.

She liked Clarke from the very beginning, she was gorgeous as well as smart and kind and so stubborn about her opinions. Being around her was intoxicating, it was part of the reason she was so insistent about paying her back, but she truly had not expect anything to come of it. Yet only two days later she realized how wrong she was. Somewhere between the girl chewing her out for not going to the hospital and telling her anecdotes from her med school days Lexa completely fell for the girl. A girl who could never love her back, that Lexa knew for certain.

Yes, Clarke was somewhat attracted to her, Lexa noticed the way her eyes lingered on her when she changed her bandages or when the blond thought she wasn't looking. But she didn't let herself hope it could be anything more. Clarke would never like someone like Lexa and the only reason she even found Lexa attractive on a physical level was that she never seen the real Lexa. How Lexa hoped to never have Clarke see her that way, the thought of looking into Clarke's eyes and seeing fear, knowing that she saw nothing but a monster, she couldn't bare it.

Her thoughts kept lingering back to Clarke distracting her from her surroundings which was why he almost managed to get a drop on her. It was a single crunch of the asphalt that made her turn in the right moment to avoid the metal pipe that was being swung on her head.

She was in the middle of searching, presumably empty, building where Azgheda met with the mole. But apparently it wasn’t so empty after all. Her attacker was a man build like a mountain, from what she could tell. It was too dark to see much and she was little busy trying to avoid his attacks.

He wasn’t using an actually weapon though so maybe he wasn't here for her. He got a few blows in, due to the initial surprise, but he couldn’t match Lexa’s speed in the end. Soon she had him on the ground her blade pressed to his carotid artery, one move away from ending his life. She could kill him, hell she could’ve shot him with her gun right after he attacked, but she couldn’t afford to waste resources.

“Who are you?” Lexa asked, keeping the knife on his throat.

“What are you playing at Natblida?” he growled. “I know why you’re here. Just kill me and get it over with, you’ll get your money, that's what matters.” His voice was full of venom, and he was successfully confusing the hell out of Lexa.

“Nobody hired me to kill you.”

“You’d be the only one if that was true.”

“Roan,” she realized.

“I’m a little offended you didn’t recognize me by my charming voice.”

“It’s been a while.” About three years, since they last spoke, and it wasn’t very friendly.

“So since you’re not getting paid for this and I can’t think of anything I’ve done to anger you, why did you hunt me down?” he asked.

“I’m the one asking questions here.” Lexa reminded. “Who from Trikru warned you I was coming?”

“No idea Doll. Haven’t you heard- I’m not part of the family anymore.” Roan was almost leaning into the blade as he spoke. “Price on my head and all that jazz. That’s why I though you were here to finish the job.”

“I’ve heard.” Roan was a dead man walking for months now. He betrayed his own people, it was surprising he was still alive not to mention in the city. “I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to stay, either.”

“If you wanna talk take that knife from my throat,” he interrupted her thoughts. “Or you could just kill me and get it over with.” She could but that would leave her with a dead body and not much else, except that it would be a big favor to Azgheda.

Lexa backed away, her other and tightening on the gun, ready to shoot if necessary.

Roan took a long breath falling into a coughing fit instantly. It sounded like he was on the brink of death, making Lexa wonder if she didn’t defeat him far too easily. Roan was supposed to be excellent warrior. She chose not to comment on it for the time being.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be retired on an island somewhere with the money?”

“Money,” he huffed. “It’s always about money with you people.”

Arrogant prick, like they were any better.

“I’m not the one who stole money from his own mother,” she shot back.

“That wasn’t me,” he denied darkly, sparking Lexa’s interest.

“Someone framed you,” she realized.

“You catch on quick, they should move you up to management,” he mocked.

“You shouldn’t insult people who are pointing a gun at you.”

Roan shrugged. “If it isn't you tonight it’ll be some other asshole tomorrow,” he talked with a strange melancholy for someone who was always so full of fire.

“I never thought I see the great ice prince give up.”

“Fuck you.” Lexa rolled her eyes at his attitude.

“You should be nicer to me, I might be the only person who can save your life,” she advised.

“Save my life, you?” he laughed. “Aren’t you the best known killer around? The great Natblida once she targets you, you never get away. Never misses a target, never leaves witnesses, can kill absolutely anyone for the right price… the ultimate weapon uncontrollable… isn't that what they say?”

That was precisely who Lexa was, that was all she could ever be.

“Maybe I’ve had a revelation.”

“Right.”

“I can help you,” Lexa insisted. “If you tell me what this place is and why you’re here tonight.”

He stared at her the moonlight illuminating his frown. Several silent minutes passed and then, just when Lexa realized he wouldn’t be useful, he spoke.

“It started five months ago.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading, feel free to leave a comment or kudos on your way out!


	6. the Collection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is over 300 kudos!!! You guys are amazing!!!

Raven was unimpressed with Lexa's story. "If she has nowhere to go where the hell did she go just now? Her office?"

"How should I know? I'm not her keeper Raven. I'm not monitoring her every move like she's some criminal.” Should she start doing that? Right now she needed to make Raven understand that even though the situation was a mess, it was Clarke's mess.

“Raven, I love you for caring so much, and you don't have to like this. but I like having Lexa here. These past few months, living here all by myself… it's been so lonely .” Clarke couldn’t bring herself to look at Raven, feeling like she was letting her down somehow by not being happy. “Lexa is fun; she acts all tough but then she freaks out about the type of bread she has to eat or completely nerds out about classical literature and-” Clarke would have happily gone on about all the reasons Lexa wasn’t so bad but Raven cut her off.

“Wait, are you falling for her or something?”

“No!” Clarke denied, little too quickly. “I just… I like having the company.” She finished, painfully aware how lame her cover was. Raven was also unimpressed.

“Uh-huh,” she said, making clear how unconvinced she was. “You could just get a dog, you know.” Raven said with a sigh and then she continued. “Clarke I'm not going to pretend this is a good idea, but I can't stop you. If she does anything, and I mean anything to you, steal from you, harm you in any way, I'm gonna kill her.” Clarke felt like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.

“I love you too Raven.”

~~~~~~~

 

Few hours later Raven has left and Clarke was using the time to paint again when her phone rang; unknown number, flashing on the screen. She considered ignoring it but she couldn’t risk missing a work emergency. So she answered the phone curtly, hoping to get whatever it was over quickly, then the other person spoke and Clarke immediately knew this had nothing to do with the office.

“Clarke?” Lexa’s voice sounded out of breath, whispering her name. It made Clarke shiver.

“Lexa, is everything okay?”

“How good of a doctor are you?” came from the phone.

“I'm not a doctor at all.” Clarke reminded. Lexa asking about her medical skills was definitely not a good sign, Clarke was certain that she wouldn't like what was about to follow.

“I need your help.”

“Are you hurt?” Clarke forced the image of Lexa lying in the pool of her own blood somewhere out of her mind.

“I'm fine. But there is a situation.” Lexa said nervously. “I finally found someone who could help me but he just collapsed - he can't go to a hospital either. I don't know what to do.”

“Did you stab him?” Clarke asked suspiciously.

“No, I didn't do anything to him!” Lexa denied. “Well I kicked him around a little but he started it.”

“He attacked you?”

“It was misunderstanding, it's not important, Clarke what do I do? I don't know first thing about keeping people alive…”

“Check his vitals, is he breathing?” Clarke jumped in, instantly going into her “dealing with emergency” mode.

“Yes.” Lexa confirmed.

“Good. Is he injured, did he hit his head, is there blood anywhere?” Clarke listed anything she could think of on the spot, hoping she sounded like she knew what she was doing.

“Not from what I can see. I don't think he hit his head.“

“Put him on his back, ideally keep his legs little elevated.”

She ordered and waited for Lexa to comply before continuing. “Is he shaking or feverish?”

“No it's more like he's sleeping… He feels colder than I am.“ She added.

“So he just lost consciousness? That could be million things Lexa. You should call an ambulance.” Clarke insisted but Lexa wouldn’t hear of it.

“He has a two million dollar bounty on his head Clarke, if he gets into a hospital he won't have time to wake up.” Lexa paused. “Is he going to die?” 

“It could be nothing, or it could be really serious,” Clarke sighed. “I'm not a doctor and I'm not even there in person. My friend works in a private clinic I could try calling him we could have him checked out discreetly. If he's even awake.”

“Clarke thats-” Lexa stopped talking suddenly. “Hold on, I think that he's waking up. “

The call disconnected.

Clarke felt like screaming but settled for angry mumbling. _“Sure interrupt my night, freak me out, and then hang up on me and go hang out with some mobster, without letting me know what's going on because you have no manners and love to torture me.”_ It made her feel slightly better but didn't calm her panicked mind.

Several minutes later her phone rang again. It was the same unknown number as before.

“Yes?”

“He's awake but he is dizzy.” Lexa reported.

“Does he know why he fainted?”

“No.”

“Did he take any drugs in the past few hours? I'm assuming he wasn't drunk when he passed out.”

Another negative answer.

“Okay…” Clarke went over all the information again, she only had one main theory. “When’s the last time he ate, slept, had a drink of water?”

“Hold on.” Clarke could hear muffled conversation on the other end of the line and then Lexa was back.

“He slept for an hour yesterday and today and a bit more few days before that. He's not sure about the food. He isn't the sharing type, I think he's shy.” Clarke thought she heard someone protesting in the background but ignored it in favor of sharing her theory.

“Okay that sounds like he's just hypoglycemic and sleep deprived, can you get him some sugar water? It could help with the dizziness.”

“I'll have to drive out for that,” Lexa responded unhappily.

“Where are you?” Clarke asked. There was a brief pause before Lexa responded.

“This empty office space that's half demolished… it belongs to Azgheda. He's been hiding out here.”

“Does he have anywhere else to go?” Clarke knew she shouldn't be asking but couldn’t help it.

“He's fine.” Lexa huffed, she could probably tell what Clarke was thinking and agreed that it was a bad idea.

_Let it go Griffin…_

“You said he's helping you?” Clarke pressed further. _You already have one injured criminal in your house._ Mocked her voice of reason that was starting to sound a lot like Raven.

“Yes but I don't know if I can trust him.” Lexa remarked, making Clarke chuckle.

“That seems to be the theme around here,” she reached her decision. “Bring him home with you.” _Am I starting a criminal in hiding collection?_

“Absolutely not!” Lexa protested. It was sweet that she thought she'd win this fight.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Roan walked slowly, holding onto the Natblidas arm and swearing profoundly about the bag on his head. He felt like crap and the absence of his sight wasn't helping. But he obliged the his new ally’s wishes for now, since it was the price to be paid for sanctuary. Whatever place the notorious killer chosen, must have been a well hidden fortress. And he might even finally have a night of sleep there, assuming that she wouldn't change her mind and kill him. His head was worth a fortune after all.

They reached the threshold, he could hear a key slitting into a lock, and then he was lead inside, welcomed by the warm air embracing him and the wooden floor creaking under his muddy shoes.

“Now I can take this damn thing off?” He growled impatient to see his surroundings. He was never fond of trust exercises of any sorts and frankly speaking he had very little trust for the assassin. But the girl next to him wasn't the one to speak next.

“A blindfold? Seriously? Isn't that a bit much?” Asked a new female voice few feet away, making Roan flinch involuntarily. He fucking hated being blind.

“I didn't want him to know where the house was,” the Natblida said defensively.

“He's standing right here, you know,” Roan reminded, his patience exhausted.

“Take that off and help him to the living room, I've got everything set up there. “ The new voice said.

Roan heard a sigh next to him and then the bag was lifted from his face.

“Finally.”

The Natblida was glaring at him.

“Listen to me carefully. I don't care how useful you are, you're only here so you won't drop dead before we get to the bottom of all this. If you so much as breathe in the wrong direction I'll make whatever Azgheda do to traitors look like a goddamn picnic are we clear?!”

He felt like passing out again but he forced himself to stand his ground. “Crystal.” he growled. Little proud of himself for still sounding threatening when he was so close to collapsing.

Roan let her lead him further into the house, wondering who exactly was the other woman. She must have been someone with serious power if she was bossing around the legendary heartless killer. Whatever images his mind formed shattered shortly after entering the room.

Firstly, the girl wasn't dressed for the part of a powerful criminal mastermind or some chief leader of assassin organization. She was wearing slightly oversized blue sweatshirt with the phrase “out of this world” and star images on its front. And that sweatshirt was possibly the most threatening thing about her. She had a pajama pants on and her long hair was in a messy bun. She must have been in her early twenties. All in all she seemed like a college kid forced to wake up for a morning class, definitely not someone he’d match to the ruthless killer.

She introduced herself as Clarke and rushed him to sit down, which he was more than happy to do. Then she proceeded to fawn over him asking him about his medical history and forcing him to drink small glass of disgustingly sweet water. All the while the Natblida stood over them, frowning at him.

“So you're a doctor?” he asked after Clarke stabbed his finger with a tiny needle pen apparently to “check his blood sugar.”

“She seems to think so.” The girl replied making a face in the Natblida's direction.

“Clarke knows what she's doing.” The killer replied, making the blond to snort.

That was definitely not the reassurance Roan wanted.

The check up continued. Roan answered most of her questions, reluctantly admitting he had a couple of wounds that could probably use cleaning and new bandage.

He had to remove his shirt for that as well, which seemed to upset the Natblida further. Why she had a problem was beyond him, he was proud of his body, thanks for asking. He didn't go to the gym almost every day for ten years to get sneered at when he took off his shirt. She was probably upset because he was taking up their time with something trivial, but hey, it wasn't his idea in the first place so maybe she should be glaring at her “not exactly doctor” friend. Or whoever the hell she was.

Roan tried to keep his eyes open he really did, but they kept falling shut.

“There are sandwiches in the kitchen, could you bring them Lex? I want him to eat something before he goes to sleep.” Clarke said when she was done cleaning him up.

 _Lex?_ Who was she talking to? Umm he did want a sandwich, he suddenly remembered he was starving. He opened his eyes again blinking away the tiredness. At least he stopped seeing black spots before his eyes after the second glass of sugar water.

“Clarke.” The Natblida said warningly, her gaze once again burning a hole into Roan. But Clarke wasn't having any of it.

“We'll be fine for a minute without you here.” She replied impatiently; clearly annoyed over being questioned. Surprisingly, the assassin complied, slugging out of the room. One last death glare was thrown in his direction before she left. The whole thing made Roan giggle in a very undignified manner. What was that, he didn't giggle? He really needed sleep.

Clark was almost as shock by the sound as he was but she was also amused. “What's so funny?”

“She's like a puppy.” He heard himself say, through another fit of laughter. He shouldn't be saying that, or laughing like that. Did they drug him or was he really just so tired? He needed to get it together.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Clarke was a little concerned with how normal bandaging stray mobsters was starting to get. She was scared of Roan at first, his hands were like shovels and he could probably snap her neck like a twig if he wanted to. But as soon as she started the check up it became clear that wasn't going to be a problem that night.

For one thing he was clearly exhausted and more importantly Lexa was like a watchdog. Any move Roan made had her standing a little stiffer, it kind or reminded Clarke of a predator about to bounce on its prey. It was a strange notion; Lexa beating Roan who was so much bigger, but she seemed confident in her abilities. Clarke tried not to think that it was incredibly, hot she had a patient to focus on.

Then Roan started giggling and comparing Lexa to a puppy which was strangely accurate and made Clarke throw her head back in laughter.

She was trying to learn how to breath again without crying in laughter when Lexa walked back with the tray of sandwiches. She was frowning and looking from Roan to Clarke and back again.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, of course.” Clarke wiped the wayward tear from her cheek. “You found the food, perfect!” She said taking the tray from her and shoved one into Roan's hand. “Eat this. And then you need to get some sleep.”

He was eyeing the sandwich cautiously, Clarke was about to assure him that it was safe, when he bit into it with vigor.

“Eat it slowly. We don't want you to get sick.” Clarke warned before turning to Lexa.

“The one with poppy seeds is for you since you didn't finish dinner. Although I still don't get why you like that crap.” she added, rolling her eyes over Lexa's food preferences.

Lexa was taken aback. “You made me a sandwich?”

“You don't have to eat it.” She said quickly. “Well you actually do because I hate that stuff, but you can eat it tomorrow or something.” Something in her rant must have worked because Lexa was smirking now.

“I don't  _have to_ eat it this very minute? How benevolent of you.” Lexa replied with amusement.  

“Yeah, I'm nice like that.” Clarke agreed returning the smirk.

“I'll eat it once we wrap things up here. Thank you Clarke.”

Lexa's expression had that soft smile again. Damn would it ever not make her stomach do flips? Clarke hoped it wouldn't.

In the meantime Roan finished with the sandwich and was eyeing the plate in Clarke's hand. There were four sandwiches left but Clarke was a little worried about the guy's stomach.

“You didn't eat in a few days. You should probably take it slow,” she informed him. “Maybe sleep for a few hours and then you can have another one, and more water. I'll go get some bedding for the couch.”

“I'll take the couch.” Lexa jumped in. “You can give the bedding to my room and I'll take mine to the couch.”

“You want to sleep on the couch?” She already slept on it once so she must have know how shitty for sleeping it was.

“We wouldn't want our guest to be uncomfortable.” Lexa shrugged. That didn't sound like Lexa at all and from the death glares she was giving Roan all night Clarke wasn't convinced. But she kept her thoughts to herself and helped make the change.

Thirty minutes later Roan was soundly asleep in Lexa's- in the guest bed and Lexa's bag was resting by the couch. Just as the girl was finishing the sandwich Clarke made for her. Clarke wanted to offer her tea and talk about everything, but this time she actually stopped herself from following through. Lexa already had a hold over her, she just stashed another criminal in her home and it was two am. Conversation with her crush at this hour was a terrifying option so she wished Lexa good night and went to bed.

Clarke was almost asleep when she heard noise in the hallway, the floor creaked, just once. Suddenly she was wide awake again. It was probably Roan going to get some water or something. Although he had water in his room as well as a bathroom so he had no reason to be out of the room. What if he was about to kill Clarke in her sleep?

Clarke listened intently but all she could hear was her own heart beat. Her body was flooding with adrenaline. It was probably nothing. If Roan was about to kill Clarke he would be in the room already. Then even worse idea came into her head. What if he went to kill Lexa first? That was crazy, she would definitely hear it if he was on the staircase, right?

Clarke couldn't take the silence, she was too paranoid, it was pitch black and she had a criminal in her house. She slowly got out of bed, careful to make as little noise as possible. She sneaked to the door listening for any sign that Roan was on the other side but hearing nothing. It was all in her head, it must've been. She would just check that the hall was empty and then go back to bed.

In one fluid motion she pulled the door opened and yelped when a body fell into her room as soon as she did.

“Fuck.” Lexa swore, collecting herself from the floor.

She must have been sitting in front of Clarke's room and leaning on the door, which was all kinds of fucking weird. Clarke turned the lights on. Now she could get a good look at Lexa in her sleeping attire, she looked a little ruffled and was avoiding Clarke's eyes.

“What the hell, Lexa? Were you sitting at my door?” Clarke asked in a hushed voice, hoping not to wake Roan.

Lexa sighed and finally faced Clarke, the confident smirk plastered on her face. “Obviously.”

“If you wanted to give me a heart attack it almost worked.” Clarke glared and at least at that Lexa had the decency to look a little sheepish.

“Sorry, I didn't think you'd open it so suddenly.”

“Okay but why were you here at all?” Clarke folded her hands, waiting for Lexa to explain herself.

“I didn't want Roan on the couch.” Lexa said after a moment.

That was a strange change of the subject.

“Okay.”

“I locked him in the room. And I was going to go back downstairs.”

“You locked him in?” That was… pretty good idea actually.

“Of course I did. But then I still didn't like the idea of having you alone up here. With him in the next room…”

“You think he's dangerous?”

“In general? Yes. To you? No, not right now anyway. Roan is different than most Azgheda. He’s… well he's a bit of a wild card, but I'll take him out if I think for a second that he's a danger to you.”

Clarke hated how casually she talked about taking someone's life. Like it was really so simple, take him out.

“I don't think he's going to hurt you, but I wouldn't be able to sleep downstairs anyway, You need to be completely safe in your own home so I'll just crash in the hallway… you won't even know I'm here.”

“You want to sleep by the door of my room?”

“I've crashed in worse places.”

“That's ridiculous you're not sleeping on the floor.”

Looking over the facts Clarke knew she probably wouldn't be able to sleep either not with her imagination running wild. And Lexa sneaking back upstairs as soon as Clarke closed her door.

“It's alright, Clarke, I'm fine with-”

“Just sleep with me.”

The way Lexa's mouth shaped itself into a perfect “O” at hearing her words was hilarious, but Clarke was too mortified by what she implied to appreciate the sight.

“Not like that!” she hurried to clear up. “Just in my bed; it's big enough, and more comfortable than the floor… and that way you won't have to worry.” That was a logical solution to the problem right? Clarke couldn't really tell because some part of her brain was screaming at her: The same bed as Lexa! You and her, in one bed! Lexa in your bed, with you! Clarke cleared her throat, trying her hardest to be casual.

“So will you be okay with that?” she asked quickly. Lexa seemed to be lost in her own thoughts but Clarke’s question brought her back to reality.

“Only if you don't mind, Clarke.” She agreed after a beat of silence.

Clarke smiled and turned off the lights again and went to bed, this time taking care to occupy only one side of the bed. Lexa followed her lead, getting into the bed on the other side. Lying with her back to Clarke.

“Good night, Lexa,” Clarke said quietly.

“Good night, Clarke.”

It was going to be a weird morning, Clarke caught herself wishing that Roan would come in and try to kill her in her sleep at least that way she'd have a valid excuse for why exactly she wanted to sleep next to a professional killer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roan crashing over was the original plan but I actually didn't think about the sleeping arrangements until it was pointed out to me in the comments last week and I loved the idea too much not to put it in!! 
> 
> I love hearing what you guys think. So thank you guys for reading and commenting!!


	7. Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 400 kudos??? I have no words guys!!

Clarke woke up because she could no longer feel her arm, there were hair all over her face and a weight on top of her. She moved her other arm to brush the hair away, but froze when she touched someone's scalp, she sleepily opened her eyes to find out what was going on. It was quite the sight.

The cold blooded killer was apparently quite cuddly, because sometime during the night Lexa practically climbed on top of her and was now nuzzled into Clarke's neck _“like a puppy,”_ Roan's comparison from the night before once again proven accurate.

Clarke's numb hand was presumably somewhere under Lexa who was using her as a body-pillow. It was nice in a way. The warm pressure of Lexa's body on top of her the smell of her hair, it smelled like Clarke's favorite shampoo, which was probably because Lexa stole her shampoo at some point. Still nice though. She could feel the Lexa's heartbeat, beating in sync with her own and best of all she could look her fill of Lexa's features without giving away how deep her interest ran. Unfortunately the pain in her hand was became more of a pressing issue with every second and soon Clarke couldn't ignore it any longer.

She made a careful attempt at freeing her arm without waking Lexa. But as soon as moved her arm Lexa stirred as well; groaning into Clarke's neck. Clarke's palm was now on Lexa's belly, all odds of leaving Lexa without waking, firmly out of the window. She had to make a break for it before the assassin realized what was happening and got in her head that Clarke was molesting her in her sleep.

“Um. Lexa?” Clarke whispered gently. “Could you move?” Few seconds without change and then she could feel Lexa's whole body tense on top of her, definitely realizing what was happening. Suddenly her bedmate rolled back to her own side unfortunately she did it so forcefully that she fell straight out of the bed, hitting the floor with a thud and cursing profoundly.

Clarke jumped up, worried and slightly amused. She didn't mean to scare Lexa. Was the thought of sleep cuddling with her really so bad that Lexa had to react so forcefully?

“Are you alright?” Clarke asked, already making her way to help Lexa but the girl got to her feet before Clarke could get close.

“Fine. I'm sorry.” Lexa mumbled quickly, her face taking on a slightly pinker color than usual. “I'll go check on Roan.” And then she practically ran out of the room.

That could've gone better, Clarke though before paddling over to the bathroom; she could use a very cold shower.

It was Thursday already, which meant that Lexa only had about a day and a half left to settle things before leaving for Polis with Clarke as per their deal. Somehow Clarke didn't believe that it could be done. Lexa would probably need more time. Which would be fine by her, Lexa could stay for a week longer if she wanted. Clarke liked her company and she could control herself around Lexa. So there was no reason why she couldn't enjoy  Lexa’s company for a little longer if the assassin needed more time to deal with things.

Then there was Roan. Would he be staying as well? Would he stay in the house while Clarke and Lexa went to Polis? Clarke wasn't sure she would be comfortable with that. Sure Roan seamed nice enough when he was delirious but letting him stay in her home unintended was not something Clarke wished to happen. Maybe they could stash him in a motel somewhere under a fake name? Even if the entire underworld really was looking for him they couldn't have eyes everywhere. All that was assuming he didn't need more medical attention.

Roan was still soundly asleep in an freshly unlocked room when Clarke checked on him which meant she was left to deal with Lexa before going to work and leaving two criminals in her house unattended. Raven would have a fit should she ever find out.

Lexa already had coffee waiting for her and seemed to be set on pretending that the sleep cuddling didn't happen. Clarke was happy to follow her lead. They easily slipped into their usual morning routine. After finishing her coffee Clarke raised the subject of the Friday deadline Lexa has set. And in a true Lexa fashion the contract killer continued to insist that everything was going according to plan and that she’d solve her problems long before they had to leave for Polis. Clark sincerely doubted her.

“Are you sure, Lexa? From the sound of it you didn't get very far with any of this? If you want to cancel this weekend I could probably-” Clarke tried but was cut off by Lexa before she could even finish the thought.

“I gave you my word that I would be your date for the gala and I'm not going back on it. With Roan's help it could be all over tonight.” Lexa insisted, reminding Clarke of another problem they were facing.

“About Roan, maybe he should be looked over by a real doctor I'm really not qualified to-” Clarke started only to be interrupted again.

“He'll be fine, you did a good job.” Clarke rolled her eyes, knowing well, that explaining to Lexa how she really had no idea what she was doing and how it was a miracle that everyone survived so far was pointless.

Clarke managed to speak to Roan briefly before leaving for work, and he did seem to be doing much better than before, so in the end, she agreed to let the two criminals to their own devices and went off to work.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

She wished she had stayed at home and helped plan murders barely fifteen minutes into her work day. Normal mind numbing bureaucratic problems aside her mother was leaving for Polis and has decided that Clarke should smooth things over with Mount Weather that very day. Clarke did not like it one bit. She knew something about that company was shady. But her mother refused to listen and left Clarke no other option than to go make nice with that spoiled prick. To make matters worse she had to come to him.

Cage left her waiting for half an hour even though the meeting had been scheduled and when she was finally allowed to enter his office he didn't even bother to stand to greet her. _Off to a great start._

“Miss Griffin! What a pleasure to have you in our offices! I must say, I didn't expect to see you here after your colorful speech the other day, what was it that you called me?” He was aiming to make it as dragged out as possible, but Clarke didn't let him rattle her. Cage could throw any fit he liked but in the end of the day he needed the deal to go through just as much as Clarke, possibly more since Clarke's interest in her job seemed to be dropping each day, the only reason she was doing any of this was Abby.

“Are you referring to that time I called you a lying sack of shit or the meeting last Friday when I said we shouldn't be making deals with someone who's drug trials were rumored to be killing people?” Clarke asked innocently, taking pleasure in the way Cage's features hardened.

“As I've already assured you, there is no truth to those accusations. Mount Weather is a big company and with success naturally comes jealous and spiteful rumors from those who failed to become great themselves.”

“That doesn't explain how you managed to turn your profits around in the last minute without adding any new product, does it?”

“Miss Griffin I was under the impression that you were here to make a deal not harass me further.” Cage said and in that moment Clarke knew she couldn’t do it.

“I'm not apologizing.” Her voice carried a definite note to it. Cage made a choking sound, shocked by the change of script.

“You're not?” he tried to pretend her words carried no meaning, only his fidgeting hands gave him away. Clarke smirked.

“I was going to. But I've had educational couple of days. And if I was in charge we wouldn't be linking our good name with your shady business at all. However, fortunately for you I'm not in charge. So the deal will come through and you will take the first deal we offered and shut the fuck up.”Cages face was practically turning red at this point, he visibly swallowed his anger, responding in quiet venomous tone instead.

“I see you truly are too immature to do business with Ms. Griffin let yourself out, we'll find someone else.” Clarke didn't move from her seat.

“No, you won't. Because if you don't hire us, I'm going to call a friend of mine who works for the FBI and they will make sure to take a very close look at all your operations, not only that but I will personally dig into how exactly you were able to stay in business and share my findings with said friend. So unless you want your life to be turned upside down, You will take the deal.” Cage was staring at her. She could practically hear the wheels turning in his head. Clarke stud up.

“Make sure to let us know you're agreeing to the deal by tonight. Good talk.”

Clarke couldn't believe she just did that. It was a bluff, a bad one at that. It was never gonna work, she should probably start packing her things. But damn if it didn't feel amazing, and the look at Cage's face. Definitely worth disappointing her mother and flushing her career down the toilet. Even if it wasn't worth it; there was no going back.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Lexa and Roan only crossed paths handful of times and from what Lexa remembered of the man he was quick to anger and his sense of subtly was seriously lacking. When the word got around that he stole large sum of money from his mother and went on the run Lexa was surprised because although he didn't strike her as the smartest he did seem fully devoted to Azgeda. Now it would seem that someone less loyal to Azgeda used Roan's rashness to steal quite the sum an blame it on him.

“I'm going to tear off his limbs and make him watch as I burn them!”

“You can do whatever you want once I question them about the Trekru mole.” Lexa replied absently, her focus more dedicated to driving.

“Why are you so sure that your rat has anything to do with the spineless coward who betrayed me?” Roan asked.

“Because whoever is trying to get rid of me made some kind of deal with Azgeda and you're the one who insist that your gang is all about honor. So are you suggesting there's more spineless cowards in your `family’ or is it likelier there's only one?”

They spent most of the day compiling possible suspects of who could've framed Roan. They had some idea who it could be, thanks to Lexa's access to surveillance information not even Roan knew about his formal clan. Only problem being the money, more precisely the absence of it. They couldn't find it anywhere. Surely if one of their suspects had the money they would be on the run or using it somehow, sum like that doesn't just disappear.

They were on their way to question one of Roan's playmates who had the best opportunity to steal the money according to Lexa's information. The first two suspects on Roan's list were already dead, product of Roan's own, much less subtle, investigation. Because of it the guy would likely have his guard up, which was why they chose to question him in broad daylight with Lexa asking the questions and determining his guilt before Roan stepped in. It was a fool proof plan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clarke was in a great mood until she opened the door of her home to find blood spattered on the floor. Muffled voices were coming from the kitchen, argument of some sorts was apparently underway. Did Lexa have a fight with Roan? Was there a break in? She followed the voices, noting that they belonged to her two resident criminals. There was also a trail of blood leading towards the kitchen, disturbing. As she got closer she could make out the words.

“Are you seriously saying it was my fault?” Roan was snarling.

“I told you to stay outside!” Lexa responded angrily.

“I saved your life!”

“I had it under control,” Lexa was arguing as Clarke entered the kitchen.

The scene that unfolded before her was a disturbing one. Roan had scars on his face before, but now his face was barely recognizable since there were bloody bits of glass stuck in almost half of it. His shirt was off, revealing a nasty looking bruise on his chest and there was an honest to god real live cat sitting on his lap for some reason, which he was petting absently. Lexa seemed to be in much better shape, standing over Roan, trying to use kitchen tweezer to remove the glass fragments from his face.

“What happened? Are you okay? Don't take the glass out yet.” Clarke threw at them in a single breath. The worst part of it all? She wasn't even that surprise to be coming home to this.

“Clarke!” Lexa jumped in surprise, nearly poking Roan's eye out.

“Why can’t she take the glass out?” Roan asked at the same time.

“Because some of those will need stitches and because we need to make sure you don’t get an infection.” Clarke glanced over the table, there wasn’t any of her medical supplies present. “Did you even sterilize those?”

“Yes?” Lexa responded, glancing at a half empty bottle of vodka on the table. Clarke suppressed a groan.

“Put that down! Jesus Christ, I go to work for a few damn hours…” She backed out of the kitchen, cursing out her house guests and their inability to remain without injuries.

Clarke fetched the medial kit, which was brand new thanks to the fact she used up the old one on Lexa and ever since the assassin moved in Clarke felt a need to stock up on medical supplies. Clarke took over from Lexa and began removing the glass from Roan’s face, while Lexa busied herself by making everyone some tea. No one spoke. Clarke wasn’t sure if she should be chiding them or trying to be a calming presence. Her mood was shifting towards pissed.

“So will one of you explain to me what happened?” she finally asked, removing another tiny shard of glass from the bloodied skin.

Again, no answer. Why did she even bother? Then the cattle started whistling.

“What kind of tea would you like?” Lexa asked, fumbling with the mugs.

“I don’t want tea, I want to know why is there a cat in my house and why Roan has face full of glass. You’re lucky you didn’t lose an eye!”

“I’ll have some tea if I can pour rum into it.” Roan answered Lexa, keeping his head still while Clarke tried to remove new piece of glass.

“I’m not sure if there’s rum… Clarke do we have rum?”

“So you’re just going to ignore me? Why, did you kill someone? Is the police looking for you? These kind of things would be good to know since you’re staying in my fucking house.” Clarke yelled at them, fed up with the two avoiding her questions.

“Lower your voice, you’ll scare Friday,” growled Roan. The cat in his lap was now looking up at Clarke seemingly more curious than scared.

“We went to see the guy who screwed Roan over but, it didn’t go according to plan because some people don’t know when to lay low.” Lexa explained.

“And other people seem to think that they're fucking bulletproof,” Roan snarled.

“Anyway,” Lexa continued, ignoring Roan’s remark. “We handled the situation, got a few scraps and bruises and a new name we need to check out. Unfortunately we probably hadn't kill anyone so now the whole of Azgeda will know we’re in town.”

Lexa spoke little too quickly and she was avoiding Clarke’s eyes, she was certainly leaving out something.

“Roan, do you agree with that?” she asked. Betting that he would have the sense not to lie to the person operating on his face.

“That’s pretty much what happened…” he nodded.

“What about the cat?” Clarke asked. She would’ve been less surprised if they came back with someone’s head in a bag than a cat. She couldn’t fathom how the animal fit into the story.

Lexa made a choking sound in the background but didn’t answer.

“What about the cat?” Roan repeated defensively, cradling the animal in his arms.

“How’d you get it and why is it here?” Clarke clarified her question, getting more and more curious about the story.

“We don’t talk about the fucking cat.” Roan said through his teeth, while Lexa actually hid her face behind her hands, her shoulders shaking. Was she laughing or crying?

“It doesn’t matter, Clarke,” Lexa said few moments later, once she pulled herself together again. “But can we keep her here? Please, Clarke! It's super important!” Lexa practically whined the last part, making Clarke realize that there was something wrong with her.

“Are you drunk?”

“No!” Lexa protested, only to forfeit to Clarke’s stare only two-seconds later. “Alright so I might have been dosed with something earlier…. but we think it's fine. Can we keep the cat?”

“You were poisoned?” Clarke put down the tweezers in favor of stepping closer to Lexa.

“She’s just high,” Roan interjected. “It’s the new drug “RED” those sons of bitches are selling them. She didn’t even get a full dose. Could you finish cleaning up my face?”

Clarke hesitated, Lexa really did seem fine so Clarke told her to sit down and went back to helping Roan. Lexa quickly joined them at the table with steaming cups of tea.

“So where are we on the cat?” Lexa once she made herself comfortable, her feet nestled under her on the chair.

“I’m not getting a cat. I already have a reputation of the crazy cat lady.” Clarke responded, letting another shard of glass fall into the prepared bowl with a clink.

“But Roan loves it.” Lexa whined.

“Her name is Friday. And enough about the damn cat!” Roan barked, jerking his head, making Clarke lose her grip on another piece of glass.

“Could you hold still?” Clarke gripped his jaw, turning him back to her.

“But the cat-” Lexa started again, practically bouncing in her seat. She really must've been holding herself back before, but now that the metaphorical cat was out of the bag she was like a kid on a sugar high, or just a normal high.

“We don’t talk about the fucking cat.” Roan hissed at Lexa. Clarke nearly poking his eye out from the sudden movement. What did she do to deserve this pain and suffering.

“The cat can stay as long as you guys do, if you stop moving right now!” She yelled, resisting the urge to pull Roan back by the hair.

“Thank you, Clarke. You’re the best!” Lexa said in a sing song voice before resting her head on the table mumbling something about cats and shaking with laughter. It was adorable.

“Your girlfriend is an annoying drunk.” Roan complained, but stayed still so Clarke could carry on with her task.

Clarke didn’t say anything to correct him. He was probably just kidding anyway. Her and Lexa girlfriends? Ridiculous notion to say the least. For one Lexa wasn’t interested in her like that and even if she was, they were from two complete different worlds that were incompatible in their nature.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Later when they were all sitting around the living room as they shared freshly delivered pizzas. Lexa was curled up on the couch next to Clarke, not asleep just yet but not actively seeking conversation either. She went to take a shower before the food came and when she came back she was wearing Clarke’s blue sweatshirt again. Making Clarke raise her brow. _“It’s so soft Clarke! This is what happens when you let criminals into your house.”_ Clarke rolled her eyes but didn’t press the issue.

“So did you find out who framed you?” Clarke asked Roan, reaching to take another piece of the pizza before the criminals got them all, between Lexa’s high and Roans appetite they were running out fast.

“There’s more than just one person involved. But more importantly we might know what they did with the money. The drug she got dosed with, RED, it’s new, it didn’t have large distribution few months ago, I’ve heard it was some experimental drug that didn’t work right. The guy we paid a visit to had boxes of it in his basement. But Azgeda always dealt with weapons not drugs, purchase like that, it wouldn’t come cheap.”

“You think they used the money to buy drugs?” Clarke asked, not sure if she was getting the problem, but what could they expect when they never gave her any concrete information.

Before Roan could answer, her phone started ringing. Mom, flashing on the screen. What now? Clarke groan before accepting the call, not bothering to get up from her seat.

“What did you do?” Her mother went on as soon as the call connected. Clarke had no idea what she was on about and before she could ask Abby continued.

“I got a call from Mr. Wallace. They are accepting the first deal we offered them! That must've been some apology.” Her mom, cheered. Clarke actually forgot all about the Mount Weather incident until now. Cage actually fell for her bluff? He really must've been hiding something bad and now they we’re going to be in business with that asshole.

“That’s great mom, but are we sure we want to work with them... That research I’ve shown you-“

“Stop talking nonsense, we’re signing them on Monday… Anyway I just got to Polis and everyone is really excited to meet Lexa. When will you be getting in tomorrow?” Clarke glanced at Lexa who was now trying and failing to lure the cat to her with a piece of salami.

“I’ll let you know, tomorrow.”

“Alright, the room for you two is already set up.” Right, the room. They were expected to stay in the Griffin Mansion with the rest of the family.

We could just get a hotel,” Clarke tried. “I know there is a lot of other relative’s coming, we wouldn’t want to inconvenience grandma…”

“Absolutely not, if I have to be stuck here all weekend, you don’t get to hide from our relatives either.” Clarke wasn’t surprised with this outcome. She stayed on the line for a few more minutes discussing details, before excusing herself and getting off the line. Both Lexa and Roan were watching her when she got off the phone.

"So, we should talk about our weekend plans.” Clarke said, glancing pointedly at Roan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is it for this week. Who is excited for Lexa meeting the family? Hopefully it all won't go terribly wrong... 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!!


	8. Polis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well this had been a looong week, but im back with a new chapter.. enjoy!

Clarke was always fond of Polis, the city wasn't overly big, the single skyscraper in it's center felt strangely out of place. But the town itself was always buzzing with life, its narrow streets tangled together in seemingly chaotic order. Clarke loved being there. She went to college in Polis. When she was freshly out of high school she wanted to major in art and stay there.

Clarke has made countless fantasies during those times, daydreams about Clarke Griffin the starving artist, slumming it in a tiny studio apartment somewhere in the middle of Polis, or Clarke Griffin the world famous artist with grand art shows or maybe a small gallery of her own or even Clarke the museum curator. Those fantasies disappeared just as any childhood dreams do when confronted with reality. Then she wanted to be a nurse, she almost finished that dream, except one tiny detail she met Finn and fell in love, losing focus and her grades suffered the consequences.

She couldn't blame Finn for that, although he didn't exactly help. But all in all it was on her she just gave up- deciding that instead of working hard to be her own person she could take the easy way out, her parents always wanted her to join the company all she had to do was stop resisting their pressure and few months later there she was, nice office job with a good pay and benefits. Before she knew it Finn was asking her to marry him and they were moving in together into a house in the suburbs. Then of course, it all went down in flames.

So Clarke dived into her job, focusing on making her parents proud. And it work for a while she was getting more and more responsibility. Clarke was almost a success in a their eyes by now. Yet all she could think about when she saw the city line of Polis was what could have been, had she stayed on her own. She certainly wouldn't be driving with a contract killer sitting shotgun staring silently ahead beside her.

Speaking of. Lexa had been strangely quiet all morning Clarke had no idea why. Lexa couldn't have been upset with Clarke because she went to great lengths accommodate her.

They were driving because Lexa was against taking the train, arguing that they should have their own means of travel and finalizing the argument by reminding Clarke that leaving the car at home would mean leaving it for Roan to use. Clarke preferred to have her car trunk corpse free, thanks for asking. They even left early because Lexa had nothing to wear and wanted to pick up things in Polis city.

“You want to go shopping?” Clarke really didn't see Lexa as the retail loving type but she supped there was little choice left.

“No,” Lexa denied. “I have an apartment in Polis I'll just swing by to pick up a few things. Even if it's being watched I'll be in and out before anyone can get there.”

“We could just buy you a dress or two...” Clarke really didn't want to risk Lexa's work life mixing into their weekend in any way especially with the entirety of Griffin clan so close.

“Yes but I need some other things that are less easy to buy.” Lexa responded, making Clarke sigh.

“Do I want to ask?”

Lexa considered her question smirking. “You'd probably rather not know.”

Clarke didn't ask, hoping that that decision wouldn't come back to bite her later. The car ride was silent. Three hours with no conversation whatsoever. Clarke tried to spark a discussion a few times but Lexa always responded curtly, clearly not in the mood for such things. So radio it was. But now they we're entering Polis and Clarke needed to ask for more directions.

“So where is your apartment?” She asked. But Lexa shook her head.

“You're not taking me to the apartment.”

“Oh I thought we were…”

“No, you'll just drop me off somewhere around here and I'll meet you at the market in two hours.” Lexa explained lethargically, gazing out of the window again.

Clarke frowned, she knew that getting to actually see Lexa's place was too much to hope for and whatever mood the assassin was in wasn't a good sign. They were in for a weekend of family horrors and if Lexa was in a bad mood already it might be even a bigger disaster than Clarke first expected.

“Is everything okay Lexa?” she tried.

“Everything is fine Clarke. Thanks for the ride, you can drop me off here.” Lexa said, motioning to a bus stop few feet ahead. Clarke sighed but complied, Lexa was out of the car before it fully stopped, immediately taking off and disappearing to a nearest ally out of Clarke's view. Clarke didn't have a clue what that was about, but now she apparently had two hours to kill.

~~~~~~~~~~

Meeting at the market place was a very vague destination seeing how the “market” stretched through the biggest street Polis had, offering a wide selection of tiny booths, shops, and restaurants and all that had been completed with swirling mass of people all enjoying the world famous Polis-market. On the other hand Clarke could see why someone of Lexa's profession could enjoy a place like this, place like this is easy to get lost in and move through unobserved. Lexa could probably slit someone's throat and slip away before anyone noticed, well that was a disturbing though Clarke should steer clear of.

It has been two hours since she dropped Lexa off and Clarke was now proud owner of bags of junk or “one of the kind items” that caught her interest and or were pushed to her by the local sellers who had caught her looking in their direction in the past hour or so. Clarke's initial idea was to avoid shopping and simply wait in a nearby cafe for Lexa to finish her business but sitting around thinking about everything turned out to be driving her crazy because Her thoughts kept slipping to Lexa in the most pathetic of ways and Clarke was frankly sick of it.

So she went and bought some souvenirs for her friends, including a fighter pilot jacket for Raven the girl would absolutely love and hopefully would accept it as a peace offering for how Clarke blatantly ignored her well intended advice. Against her better judgement she also got a little something for Lexa.

Now it was almost the time to meet Lexa so Clarke kept her phone on hand expecting a text or something to let her know the assassin arrived as she wandered aimlessly. She was walking by a booth with toys for kids when something caught her interest, a raccoon plushie sitting at the very back of the display, it had adorable cartoonishly big eyes. Somehow it reminded Clarke of the first night she met Lexa and the girl had black paint smeared all around her eyes. She bought it on a whim, having no idea what she was going to do with it.

She was stuffing the raccoon toy into one of the bags trying not to bump into anyone when a hand taped her shoulder. Clarke looked up to see that Lexa has just materialized next to her. She couldn't help the way her face immediately lighted up. God she was hopeless; maybe Lexa haven't noticed.

“Lexa, hi!” Clarke greeted, schooling her expression to be as casual as she could manage in Lexa's presence. Lexa smiled back and took her place at Clarke's side, falling in step with ease.

“Are you hungry Clarke? I saw some food places just over there, maybe we could get something before going to the house?” Lexa suggested, they were walking so closely their shoulders were brushing, which was unavoidable giving how crowded the market was but it still sent thrills through Clarke. She had to resist the urge to take Lexa's hand. She also almost missed Lexa's words.

“I'm sorry, what?”

“Food? I'm kinda starving...” Lexa admitted, nodding in the direction of food oriented part of the market.

“Oh, no we have to eat with the family, we're almost late already.” Clarke paused, realizing that she should've told Lexa more about the family reunion weekend beforehand. The poor girl had no idea what she was in for. “I mean if you really need to have something right now we can grab something small. But there's gonna be a big family dinner tonight and the food there is always really good.” And it's also incredibly chaotic and or awkward; but Clarke was keeping that part to herself for the moment.

Lexa was clearly confused. “I thought the gala was tomorrow?”

“It is. That's the official part, businesses and friends of the family mingling, publicity opportunities... etcetera it's all intended to raise money for charity but it's actually mostly just to keep up the contacts and schmooze anyone who is anyone giving away money to charity is just a bonus. Tonight it's just the family meeting for dinner, kids attended it as well and it's at the main house so it's completely private. My dad and most of his siblings were here already all week but tonight is the latest for all of the extended family to arrive and we all catch up over diner.” Clarke explained as they walked, biting her lip. She was so caught up with everything this past week that she didn't even have time to think about how strange her family was and what would Lexa think about all of it.

Lexa quietly considered all the new information before asking. “So how many people are we talking about here?”

“About twenty-five?” Clarke guessed, counting over her relatives in her head. “I'm not really sure about all of the cousins, also some of them could be coming with their own dates,” she shrugged.

Lexa seemed surprised. “And all those people are staying with us at your grandmother’s?”

“Yeah, but don't worry, we'll have our own room. The house is a... spacious.” Clarke replied. Then she finally took a good look at Lexa, realizing that she was suspiciously empty handed.

“You didn't pick up your things?”

Lexa shook her head. “It's already at the car, I walked right by it so I figured I might as well drop it off.”

“Huh, I thought I locked it.” Clarke said, distinctly remembering doing so. Lexa smirked. “I didn't break a window if that's what you're worried about.” Clarke rolled her eyes. Of course Lexa had a way to break into her car, who was even surprised at this point. She decided to focus on a different question on her mind.

“So you live somewhere around here?” It made little sense for Lexa to be living in Polis if her people we're based in one city over. “I thought that you live around Tondc like the rest of us?”

“I don't really stay in one place in particular. I travel all the time, and when I'm not traveling I do spent a lot of time in one of the safe houses in Tondc…” “So why have a place here?” Clarke questioned.

“I needed to stay here a while back and I liked the apartment. Very secure. Also a good hiding place, not many people know about it, if one of them is the traitor and they're watching it it could narrow the search.”

They kept talking on their way to the car. Clarke didn't manage to get much more concrete information from Lexa, but at least the assassin seemed to be in better spirits than earlier. As they drove to the house, Clarke realized that she would need to present Lexa as her new girlfriend to everyone and promptly went into a panic mode. Quickly throwing any information about her relatives she could think of at Lex in an attempt to ready her for the event. At least Lexa was back to her confident self, taking all information a stride, completely unconcerned.

~~~oOoOo~~~

Part of Lexa wanted to jump out of the moving car and take her chances with the asphalt road. She already knew that Clarke's family was rich. That came up the very first they she checked in on her mysterious savior she just hadn't expect that there would be so many of them and that she'd have to meet them in an informal setting as well. She didn't really know how to deal with big family in one house, she could hardly picture what it look like. She pretty much grew up with her cousin Anya and her uncle Gustus, but something told her that what she was in for now would be wildly different.

Lexa was hardly listening as Clarke listed all the topics Lexa shouldn't bring up around her uncle Dave, who would apparently talk her ear off given half a chance.

“Oh and whatever you do don't let him start telling you about the fireworks.”

“Why not?”

“Because he designs and choreographs them but aunt Hannah is against them and last time they got into that argument we had to put out a fire, don't even ask… And then there's my cousin Paula and she will try to plan our wedding-”

“Our what?” Lexa cut her off, nearly choking. “Did I miss a fake engagement party?”

“No, but she'll try to do it anyway, she's obsessed with weddings and children.” Clarke sighed. “Although she might still be upset with me for calling off my wedding the last time so maybe we're in the clear.”

“Your wedding?” Lexa asked. She had no idea that Clarke had been engaged. To whom? How long ago? Did Clarke still have feelings for them? Lexa needed to know everything yesterday.

“Oh,” Clarke said, realizing that she revealed something she probably didn't want to discuss. “It's a long story…” she mumbled, obviously uncomfortable. “I was engaged before, but it didn't work out.”

“It's fine, it's none of my business.” Lexa said to spare Clarke the awkwardness. It was true, Clarke knew nothing about Lexa's past so Lexa hardly had the right to pry. That however didn't make Clarke's decision not to share hurt any less.

They weren't actually close or know that much about each other and now they were going to be stuck faking being intimate all weekend. Lexa began to realize just what kind of ironic torture she has set up for herself. To be fair when she agreed to this she only thought that Clarke was cute and fun to mess with, she hadn't expect that over the period of meager six days the girl would take a sledgehammer to the walls around Lexa's heart and take up permanent residence there.

Then they got to Clarke's Grandmother's place and Lexa got the feeling she was on a job. It started when they reached a big metal gate with electronic security, Clarke casually rolled down the window, swiping some kind of security card on a panel by the gate making it open instantly.

They drove for five more minutes on a dark road before they even reached the building, It definitely wasn't “a house”. The word mansion was a much better description, small palace would be another. Lexa infiltrated places like this before on multiple occasions usually to kill someone excessively powerful trying to mess with the wrong people. Roan's mother, leader of the Azgeda, had a huge hose and enjoyed excess but even her villa would look like a modestly decorated dumpster compared to the Griffin’s residence.

Lexa knew that Clarke was rich. But apparently she was RICH. There was a fucking fountain by the door! She instantly went to her work mode, critically evaluating possible access points and her get away options.

“Is there any hired security?” she asked as Clarke parked her car next to a shiny shelby mustang which was the last in the long line of obviously expensive cars casually parked by the house.

“No?” Clarke raised a brow. “There's some house staff but most of them don't stay over,” she answered. “You’re not planning to rob the place right?”

Lexa huffed, amused, “I'm a contract killer not a thief Clarke. I was just surprised,” she said and Clarke sighed.

“I know it’s probably not what you were expecting but just do what you did when Abby came over last Saturday, you can be quite likable when you put your mind to it.” Clarke smiled lightly and exited the car before Lexa could respond. Well she could be charming, that really wasn’t the problem though.

Clarke lead them to the house, not bothering with knocking or ringing the bell in any way she pushed the door open. They entered a big hall with fancy gigantic chandelier stairwell that went from two sides of the hall and several doors, one on each side of the house. Clarke dropped her bags to the floor calling out loudly: “We’re home!” Her shout echoed through the house, starting a wave of muffled responses Lexa almost couldn’t make out.

“Hi Clarke!”

“Who’s here?”

“Clarke!”

“In the parlor Clarke!”

“Don’t go to the parlor Clarke!”

Before Lexa could make out where were the voices coming from, the sound of footsteps running and high pitched screaming of Clarke’s name pulled her attention to the stairwells. Two small blond tornadoes were running to them from the left side. Jumping at Clarke as soon as they got close enough.

“Auntie Clarke!” One of the little girls shouted, gripping onto Clarke’s leg. “You need to come hide with us!” The second girl didn’t hug Clarke instead she was glaring at Lexa suspiciously.

“Who are you?” she asked with authority not many six year olds could muster. But Clarke was quick to draw the girl’s attention to herself. “That’s my new girlfriend Lexa, and We got you guys something!”

“You have? What’d you get us?” they yelled simultaneously. Lexa’s existence easily forgotten.

“Yep” Clarke nodded and bent down to search through her bags, finally pull out a brown paper bag and smiling wickedly. “Don’t tell your mother!” She said with a wink and handed the bag over to the one on her leg.

The girls, huddled to the bag peering inside just once before closing it again. And then they were sprinting away again. Shouting their thanks behind their shoulders.

Lexa was confused.

“What was in the bag?” she asked, but before Clarke could answer, Abby came up to them from the right away with a blond man by her side.

“You made it! We’re so happy you’re here!” Abby exclaimed, hugging first Clarke and then Lexa.

They all exchanged greetings, the blond man turning out to be Clarke’s father Jake Griffin. He had a firm handshake and immediately requested that Lexa would call him Jake. Then couple more people came peering out of the hallway by then, but no more introductions were made, Abby instead insisting that they should go freshen up before dinner. Which was fine by Lexa who was starving entirely at this point.

Abby and Jake showed them to their designated room telling them that they had twenty minutes before dinner. Again the word room might have been incorrect it was more of a suite; it even had a couch, and a walk in closet for hell’s sake.

“How formal will this informal dinner be exactly?” Lexa asked suspiciously.

“Eh, you might want to be slightly more formal than for a normal family dinner if you want to blend in but even if you go in jeans and a T-shirt nobody will care.” It was nice of her to say but Lexa didn't buy it for a second. Everything she did this weekend would reflect on Clarke and Clarke deserved the best.

“I'm going to go change.” She said, grabbing one of her own bags and disappearing in the bathroom. She had an outfit for the gala, but all of her other clothes were picked out less carefully and Lexa found herself little insecure about them.

When she emerged again she was wearing a long black dress with a split going up to her thigh. Her hair was mostly loose only two small braids keeping it back from her face. Clarke was sitting on the bed still in her original clothing and she was staring at some kind of plush toy entirely lost in thought. Lexa coughed to get her attention.

“Is this something your girlfriend would wear to impress her future in-laws?” She asked once Clarke looked her way. Clarke’s eyes widened at seeing her for a second Lexa worried she messed up but then Clarke breathed out, “Wow.” And Lexa knew that she nailed it smirking at Clarke.

“So, good enough?” Lexa fished for another compliment. She was honestly loving Clarke’s reaction, maybe she could have something with her. It could never be as serious as she wanted it to be, but maybe that glimpse would be enough.

“Yeah, you look-” Clarke cut herself off, changing the sentence halfway through. “It’s perfect. I suppose I should put on something as well, so you don’t look so completely out of my league.” She said motioning to the closet but stopping suddenly and going back to the shopping bags instead. “I actually got you something at the market, it’s going to look great with the dress.”

Lexa froze. She couldn’t have heard that right, Clarke got something for her specifically?

Clarke soon returned with a necklace dangling from her hand and held it up for Lexa. Lexa carefully took it from her, examining it. It was a green gemstone set in an intricate web of thin silver lines attaching the stone to a chain. It was beautiful.

“I noticed you don’t really wear jewelry and you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to but I figured maybe for this weekend you could use it.” Clarke spoke quickly, obviously nervous about the gift. Lexa wanted nothing more than to pull Clarke into a kiss but she resisted.

“It’s beautiful Clarke, thank you. Will you do the honors?” She asked, handing the necklace back to Clarke and turning around. Clarke secured it around Lexa’s neck and then she went to get dressed herself.

Lexa sat down on the bed as she waited. Her attention was drawn to the toy Clarke was so fascinated with earlier. She turned it over. It was a raccoon, probably a gift for one of the children. But Lexa didn’t understand why Clarke would choose a raccoon of all things.


	9. The Griffins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sorry for the delay folks, this one was though to write.

Lexa was a professional, the best of the best, her name a brand of it’s own. People she dealt with knew not to fuck with her, some tried in the past of course, but that was before her reputation became what it was. Killing people came naturally to her. Did she feel bad about taking lives? No. Not since her first kill. Lexa did what she had to do to survive, and she was incredibly good at taking lives so why bother looking for a different job? The name Natblida, the silent killer, attached itself to her when she was nineteen years old and ever since then she never found herself in a situation where she wouldn’t know what she was, the predator. Fearing nothing and no-one, never showing the slightest signs of weakness. It was how she survived, it was who she was.

The downside of having no weakness was that she never had a real relationship. She was in love once, it didn’t end well. And afterward Lexa’s lifestyle didn’t allow for anything serious settling her for couple of passionate encounters with complete strangers but even those were few and far in-between. Because Lexa wasn’t good at letting people close both physically and emotionally. She build walls upon walls around herself and then Clarke came along and Lexa’s defenses crumbled on their own accord, it was unsettling. And now Lexa was meeting Clarke's entire family and she didn’t know who the hell she was.

She needed to hold onto the only identity she had especially when she was around Clarke, but she could hardly be the stone cold emotionless killer when she was suppose to pretend to be Clarke’s loving and sweet girlfriend. But the persona she presented to Abby almost week ago was now hell to uphold. Holding Clarke’s hand, whispering into her ear. It was fun when she was doing it to mess with the girl, but now it was just a reminder she was only allowed to do those things as a play pretend, that her touch was most likely annoying Clarke was suddenly an idea which was making Lexa’s stomach turn.

On top of being forced to deal with the unwelcome feelings she had for Clarke, Clarke’s relatives presented a new set of issues. There was a lot of them for one. Clarke’s father Jake had three brother’s and a sister and all of his siblings were also married with kids with a single exception of “uncle Steve” who introduced himself as the black sheep of the family as well as Clarke’s favorite uncle. Clarke did seem fond of the man but unfortunately Lexa didn’t get to find out why because there more introductions were to be made. Like Clarke’s grandmother, Amelia Griffin. That woman was another problem. She did not like Lexa and didn’t bother hiding it.

Once Lexa was finally broth before the elderly woman she immediately noted that the woman had the presence of an extremely powerful crime lord. The presence of someone who has enough power to be completely unconcerned about the lives or wishes of ordinary people and is old enough to simply not care about getting more of it but god help anyone who challenges their power. Lexa knew because she has been hired to kill people like that as well as to kill for them on several occasions. Not that she was suggesting Clarke’s grandma was a crime boss, but it was the first comparison that came to her mind when she met the woman. Then Lexa gave her most charming smile to the old woman only to be scrutinize by her gaze in turn.

“Miss Woods, what makes you believe that you’re good enough for my granddaughter?” asked grandma Griffin once she was done assessing Lexa’s appearance.“Grandma!” Clarke started to protest but Lexa tugged on her hand, already answering the question.

“I’m not. She’s too good for me and for anyone really, but I’d do anything for her,” Lexa said honestly. The older woman nodded thoughtfully, “You’re a quick one. We’ll talk more later,” she said dismissing them not so subtly.

“Looking forward to it.” Lexa said and let herself be dragged to a different corner of the room by Clarke.

“I’m sorry I should’ve warned you. She always does this.” Clarke quickly apologized. “We need drinks.” Lexa noticed that they just so happened to be at the side of the room where the bar was. All alcohol was kept in glass carafes but Clarke seemed to be familiar with them and soon they were both nursing their own glasses of some amber liquid. Scotch, very smooth one. Sadly that was when Clarke’s cousin chose to enter the parlor dragging one of the blond tornado’s behind her.

“Clarke, did you give sweets to my kids?!” She hissed loudly, turning every head in the parlor as she marched with her kids by her sides. She was around Clarke’s age, her hair was even lighter than Clarke’s and she was probably quite attractive when she wasn’t shrieking at Lexa’s Clarke, that was a serious offense in Lexa’s books.

“She didn’t give it to us mom!” Protested one of the blond girls before Clarke could say anything.

However the woman wasn’t buying it. “This is just like you! You haven't even been here a day and you’re feeding poison to my kids!” She yelled.

“Calm down Liz, I’m sure Clarke didn’t mean any harm!” one of Clarke’s uncles approached the angry mother in a attempt to pacify the situation, he was ignored entirely. Clarke didn’t seem bothered sipping her drink calmly.

“What are you talking about Liz?”

“Lollipops, I just found them with these!” she yelled, folding her arms angrily. “Don’t try to deny it!”

“Oh yes, lollipops, was I not suppose to give them before dinner? I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to spoil their appetite.” Clarke said with an innocent smile.

“That’s not the issue! You know I don’t give them sugar! However you terrorize your body is your business but don’t try to kill my kids!” Liz yelled. Almost everybody else in the room went back to their previous conversation, Lexa judged from their expressions that this was nothing unusual.

“Don’t you smoke with them around all the time?” Clarke asked with innocent curiosity, taking another sip of her drink.

“What I do is none of your business, Clarke, you’re not a mother you have no idea what it takes, and you do not get to tell me how to raise mine. When I want them to become felons I’ll let you know.”

Lexa felt like killing punching Clarke’s cousin wouldn't be socially acceptable in this situation but oh how she wanted to. Not that Clarke needed the help, she suggested what else Liz could take her advice on and it seemed like the fight would soon escalate enough that Lexa would actually have to hold Clarke back from committing a felony, but then Clarke’s father stepped between them and one of the servers came to announce that the dinner was ready to be served.

Luckily seating arrangements had Clarke and Liz seated far from each other but Clarke continued to grumble and she hardly spoke during dinner, leaving Lexa to maintain the conversation. Not that she had any right to complain she was only here to make Clarke’s life easier and to shield her from awkward conversations wasn't she?

To Lexa’s joy Clarke’s only unmarried uncle Steve was sitting across from them and he was proving to be the perfect companion for light conversation. He shared funny anecdotes from his life wildly gesturing as he spoke he even made Lexa genuinely laugh, a feat only few ever managed. Even Clarke slowly joined in the conversation and recounting old stories. Completely shocking Lexa when they began reminiscing about that time Clarke crashed uncle Steve’s car into a lake.

“It really wasn’t as bad as it sounds!” Clarke insisted when she noticed Lexa’s surprise.

“Oh, it was even better than it sounds!” Steve jumped in laughing.

“Oh are you telling the car story again?” Clarke's father asked from two seats over.

“Of course he is” Clarke rolled her eyes but didn’t actually seem all that bothered. “He never misses opportunity to drag that up.”

“Lexa hasn’t heard it yet! Would you rob your girlfriend of that opportunity? Surely you’re not that cruel Clarke!” uncle Steve pretended outrage was entertaining to watch. Lexa could see why he didn’t fit in with the rest of the family, he was by far the most easy going and unguarded and if Lexa was looking for a weakling to extract information on the Griffins she would definitely target him first. She had to shake herself from her work mindset, Especially since when all this was over she would never take any job related to the Griffins so there was no reason to gather intelligence. Still, some habits are tough to break.

The story Clarke’s uncle started telling caught Lexa by surprise, apparently Clarke’s youth haven't been as straight and narrow as Lexa believed, if the story was any indication.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Clarke loved her family, especially when she was far away from them. Now that she was at the same table with them she was re-considering that opinion, her mother was sitting to her other side but luckily she was talking to aunt Cindy about something and even more fortunately uncle Steve, got seated across from them. Steve was one of the few people Clarke could talk to without wanting to drink herself to oblivion, Clarke wondered if her mother arranged for him to be close by as a favor to her or if it was a coincidence.

They got through most of the meal recounting old stories. Every time the whole family got together the same cycle of old stories was told with little to no change. With the sole exception of the story of how Clark borrowed her uncle's car and accidentally let it fall into a lake by forgetting to secure it with a manual break.

Originally he insisted she borrowed the car and the car didn't even go very deep into the water before it stuck on a rock and it was towed and back to its original condition in a day, but as the story got re-told again and again uncle Steve turned it into a dramatic tale of teenage drama. Mostly to annoy other family members but also because Steve was ridiculously dramatic person. It somehow turned into a story about Clarke stealing the car to impress her high school crush and sneaking out of a window in the dead of night only to drive straight into a lake while racing the school bully. Well that part changed every year, always getting more dramatic ending, it was uncle Steve's thing, he thought it was his duty of a writer to dramatize any story he possibly could, he was Clarke's favorite.

This year uncle Steve didn't fail deliver and Clarke was impressed, the story changed again and she caught herself hanging on his words waiting to hear how it went in this version, she wasn't alone though people in their vicinity stopped talking to listen to it even though everyone with the exception of Lexa knew it was entirely made up. According to uncle Steve this time Clarke actually stole the keys directly from his pocket by “accidentally” spilling her drink at his jacket and then offering to take it away and clean it with the keys conveniently disappearing with it as well as the keys that were inside. Story Clarke also dried the jacket and wore it to her date to impress the girl she had a crush with it as well as the car. (In reality there was no girl and Clarke and her friends went during the afternoon not in the dead of night.)

Even if the new story wasn't entertaining on it's own Lexa's reactions to it certainly were, she seemed fascinated and voiced her surprise about Clarke participating in something as careless as illegal street racing, they didn't even get to the lake part.

“We do stupid things for love Lexa,” uncle Steve sighed dramatically. “And the Clarke I know always had a way to attract trouble.” He added with a wink directed at Clark. He had that right. Lexa and her shared a look, the assassin thinking the same.

“She, certainly does. So what happened, did you race?” Lexa asked, turning the question to Clarke directly this time.

“Ah I couldn't possibly spoil the ending for you, uncle Steve has a unique way of telling it.”

“Thank you Clarke, where was I? Oh yes Clarke accepted the challenge to defend the lady's honor and race the school quarterback in the dead of night; In my brand new chevy!” Clarke rolled her eyes the car wasn't even new.

The story continued, this version ending with Clarke driving the car off road to avoid hitting a deer, completely forgetting about the lake which was hidden by darkness and then barely escaping with her life, leaving the car to it's fate. Clarke had to give it to uncle Steve, he knew how to tell a story. Clarke couldn't help laughing and joined the others in laughing and commenting on the story as if it was a real event. Lexa was the only one not laughing, instead she was looking at Clarke strangely worried.

“You almost drowned?”

I'm not so boring now… Clarke though but also felt a little guilty, Lexa seemed actually concerned.

“You all should quit this nonsense, you're confusing poor Lexa.” Abby jumped in, hurrying to explain that Steve was a writer and had problems telling fiction from reality. To that Steve took offense, and vicious argument nearly broke out, luckily Clarke's dad intervened in time and pacified the situation. The dinner went on.

Lexa and Clarke were doing well, the conversation thankfully started to focus on other members of the party and all they had to do was sit there smile and occasionally ask questions. They were almost done with the meal, only desert left to be served. And then aunt Cindy had to go and open her big mouth. Out of the blue asking whatever happened to Finn. Of course that was when the entire table went quiet, everyone wanting to hear Clarke’s answer. Lexa was looking at her curiously with those big green eyes. Clarke was careful not to tell her anything about Finn. Because it wasn’t something she wished to discus and because she just knew Lexa would insist on killing him for her. And although Finn acted like an asshole he didn’t deserve to die, probably.

“He moved to Phoenix the last that I heard.” Clarke shrugged, playing down how sensitive the topic was as much she could.

It wasn’t enough. “So what exactly happened between you; were all dying to know.”

Clarke bit her lip she had a suitable story she already gave to her parents but that didn’t make her dread talking about it any less. But there was no escaping it now she took a deep breath prepared to tell the story with a sad smile. But before she could begin Lexa started twitching and gasping next to her.

Clarke’s heart leaped into her throat with worry about the girl.

“Lexa?”

It looked like she was choking. She was turning pale and wildly gesturing to Clarke who wasted no time, quickly getting them both up and Heimliching Lexa.

It worked like a charm, soon Lexa was coughing suspiciously large piece of potato and thanking Clarke so genuinely a meekly Clarke was certain the choking was nothing but Lexa throwing her a saving grace. She couldn't decide if she wanted to kiss Lexa or punch her for scaring her like that.

“Are you alright, Lexa?” Several voices echoed around the table. “Get her some water.”

Lexa wobbled on her feet but instead of sitting down she clung to Clarke.

“I’m fine. Thank you Clarke! Sorry everyone, I didn't mean to cause a scene.” She said shyly glancing at her feet in clear embarrassment. “I think I need some fresh air.” Lexa Said before apologizing to everyone again, the very picture of innocence.

“I’ll come with you.” Clarke said trying her hardest to sound concerned and not at the verge of laughing. Normally leaving the table in the middle of dinner like this would be met with strong criticism but Lexa’s performance combined with her innocent puppy dog eyes meant that they could get away with it.

Lexa was putting most of her own weight on Clarke, practically letting herself be carried, but as soon as the giant door of the dining room closed after them she straightened up, although she remained holding Clarke’s hand, probably just in case someone went after them.

“I think some air would actually do us good, want to show me the garden?" Lexa asked when they got to the main hall and they were left with the choice of going out or walking back to their room. Moonlit walk around the well cared for lands of Griffin manor with the girl she shouldn’t be crushing on, what would go wrong? But then again how could Clarke possibly say no.

“Sure we should go outside for at least a little bit, someone might come check on us.” Clarke agreed and so only a few moments later they were pulling their coats around them as the pebbles crunched under their feet, they weren't holding hands anymore and Clarke was honest enough with herself to admit that it bothered her. She imagined herself taking Lexa's hand and saying;  _“In case someone looks.”_  But that would be pathetically obvious. Her next option would simply be taking Lexa’s hand without saying anything but Lexa wouldn’t like that, she was only staying with Clarke because she had nowhere else to go and she was only nice to Clarke because she saved her life. Sure they flirted but that was just who Lexa was, she was all confident and smirky and if she knew Clarke was having actual feelings for her she’d get weirded out and leave. Or maybe she would entertain Clarke kiss her, maybe even sleep with her but it would only be a game to her. Something fun to do with Clarke before she could go back to her real life. Clarke wanted to trust Lexa, but she wouldn’t be able to bear it if she was wrong and Lexa was just taking advantage of her. She put her cold hands into the pockets of her coat to prevent temptation.

They walked to the gazebo, it had nice view of the pond, Clarke’s favorite place.

“I used to come here to draw all the time,” Clarke pointed to the spot she always choose to sit on. “We lived here when I was little, and my parents were always busy so would come here.” Clarke stopped herself, she was sharing too much, Lexa probably didn’t care.

“It's beautiful here,” Lexa said looking around curiously.

“It’s nicer during the day and when it’s not freezing cold.” Clarke added burring herself deeper into her coat.

“Are you cold? We can go back if you want…”

“No, I’m fine.” Clarke smiled. “That was quite the performance by the way.”

Lexa smirked. “Thank you, Clarke, as you know I’m incredibly good actress. But that’s not what I do best.”

“I’m glad you didn’t kill anyone.”

“I’m good at killing people but I'm even better at other things…” Lexa’s tone was slightly lower now, Clarke was suddenly glad for the cold wind, it helped fight down the heat she was feeling.

“You’re not that great at keeping your hands to yourself.” Lexa’s eyes widened comically.

“I’ve seen that you packed my sweatshirt into your bag,” Clarke continued. “I thought you were a killer not a thief?”

“That’s for cover purposes Clarke.” Lexa explained, rolling her eyes, at Clarke’s accusation. “We’re a couple, I should be seen wearing your clothes. All these small details will help us sell the story.”

“Sure,” Clarke said, utterly unconvinced.

They were standing close to each other at this point, really close. Clarke later couldn’t say who made the first move. All she remembered was glancing away from Lexa’s eyes to her lips and the way her heart was beating way too loud. Then they were kissing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does this count as a cliffhanger?


	10. May we kiss again

Kissing Lexa was quite possibly the most addictive experience Clarke ever had. It was nothing like any first kiss she could describe. It started of slow and soft, careful, but soon it turned more hungry and demanding. Lexa's hands appeared on her hips pulling her closer and something switched, desperate need to be even closer overwhelming her. The kiss deepened, Clarke taking over all control of the kiss, wrapping one of her hands around Lexa's waist and the other tangling in her hair. She couldn't get enough, she needed more of Lexa, she wanted to drive her as crazy as she was feeling. The chemistry she had with Lexa before was absolutely nothing with what she felt now. It was like comparing candle and a fucking furnace. She was very close to wrapping her legs around Lexa and throwing the consequences out of the window when a phone started ringing.

It effectively shocked Clarke out of the kiss. She pulled away from Lexa slightly, and let some of that cold night air back into her lungs. Clarke took pleasure in the fact that Lexa looked just as dazed from the kiss as she was. Lexa's face was heated and her hair was messy she glanced at Clarke apologetically before taking the ringing phone out of her pocket, frowning as she answered it.

“If this is about another cat picture I'll fucking kill you!” Lexa barked into the phone but one of her hands was still snuggled around Clarke's waist. It was nice, warm.

Clarke couldn't make out the other side of that phone call, only catching muffled voice, most likely Roan's. But by watching Lexa's expression change she could tell it wasn't good news.

“How do you expect me to do that?”

“He is?”

“Fuck.”

“That's not happening.”

“No.”

“I will not.”

“Fine.” Lexa hissed as she ended the call.

“That didn't sound good.” Clarke threw in when Lexa didn't say anything in couple of minutes. Lexa looked at her guiltily. “Do you think I could borrow your car? For a few hours…”

“What's going on?”

“Roan has a lead, there's a secret meeting going on right here in town, I can make it there if I hurry. It could be the connection between my people and Roan's people we've been looking for…”

“You can have the car but… you know we have to talk about this right?” Clarke said and went on to clarify when Lexa seemed confused. “About us.”

Lexa pulled her hand away from Clarke's waist as if she just know became aware of it, looking slightly horrified.

“Ah, I'm sorry.” Lexa said, avoiding Clarke's eyes.

“You're sorry?” 

“I just kissed you like that, I thought you wanted me to a..” Clarke couldn't believe what she was hearing.

“I kissed you back,” she reminded Lexa, stopping her mid rant.

“You did..” Lexa confirmed, although she seemed no less confused. How was she so damn adorable?

“I liked the kiss.” Clarke said stepping back into Lexa's space. “Did you?”

“Yes?” Lexa answered quietly. Clarke wanted to laugh. How could this person be completely calm when talking about removing a bullet from her own body with kitchen utensils or killing people but be so completely lost when they kissed. It wasn't fake, Clarke was willing to bet on it. She moved her face to Lexa's their cheeks were inches away.

“Kiss me again?” Clarke whispered the question against Lexa's ear before leaning away. She didn't get far before hand tangled in her hair, gently pulling her lips into another kiss. This kiss was different, more gentle, unsure, but sweat nevertheless.

Clarke wondered what would've happened if Lexa had the night free and they could go back to their room or even go back to catching up with the family like everything was normal. She certainly didn't expect to have her first kiss with Lexa that night.

~~~~~~

The kiss happened over five hours ago, it was well after midnight and Lexa still hasn't come back. Clarke was worried sick. You'd think that she'd get used to Lexa coming back at odd hours after the week they had but she wasn't so lucky. Honestly no matter what Roan and Lexa claimed Clarke was having serious doubts about how good at her job Lexa was. She seemed to be getting hurt more often than not from what Clarke had seen. Which was why Clarke lied awake in bed unable to close her eyes without being haunted by unpleasant images of Lexa being hurt somewhere.

Clarke briefly considered calling Roan to try to find out more about whatever was going on, but she decided against it, knowing that he wasn't likely to share any details and might make her more nervous.

Roan was even worse than Lexa when it came to casually speaking about horrible things. Like on Friday when Clarke was waiting for Lexa to get ready to leave and Roan somehow started explaining to her how she should keep her kitchen knives much sharper because she would have problems trying to use them to interrogate someone. He was halfway through explaining which of her knives would be most suitable to stab someone with. (it was the smaller knife Clarke used that one time she actually tried cooking, who knew). And then Lexa came back and told him to shut up. It actually turned into an argument between Lexa and Roan about Clarke's home needing to be better equipped to be a decent base and what should be done about the issue. At which point Clarke jumped in, reminding them that no guns were permitted into the house, making Roan laugh so hard he almost fell off the chair. It was very difficult to explain to him that she was serious. After a while he just shrugged, clearly unconvinced and said. “I love your sense of humor, Doc.”

Needles to say he wasn't the best option to call for reassurance. Clarke sighed. There was little reason to just lie in bed doing nothing. She fetched her computer and settled on to of the covers with her legs crossed. Lexa was working so she could do the same. Ideally she would find something to get them out of the Mount Weather deal when things turned ugly. She looked and she looked, but other than the business being extremely shady and facing multiple, if very hard to proof allegations. She got so frustrated with the problem that she almost missed Lexa walking into the room.

“You waited up?” Lexa's voice finally pulled her out of the company records, she was going through. Clarke's full focus immediately shifted to Lexa. She didn't have any obvious injuries, not that that was any guarantee. She seemed surprised by Clarke's presence for some reason.

“You didn't have to stay up Clarke.” Lexa said.

Clarke waved her off... “Couldn't sleep, so I did some work... What about you, do you know who's behind all this?”

“No, it was a dead end.” Lexa denied as she walked over to the other side of the room. “I need a shower,” she added before disappearing to the bathroom. Something was off about her behavior, but Clarke couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was. Or maybe it was just the late hour effecting her senses. Clarke sighed and put away her computer. They definitely needed to talk more before the weekend was over.

Lexa took her time in the shower, and then the walk in closet and when she finally emerged she was wearing long pajama pants and Clarke's sweatshirt. Which was certainly a big change from her usual much less modest sleeping choices. Clarke eyed her suspiciously as she made her way to the bed.

“Feeling cold?” Or are you worried I wont be able to control myself around you now that we kissed? Oh god was this Clarke's fault, maybe she freaked Lexa out with the wee need to talk about us.. _God Griffin you just had to fuck things up before they even started._

Lexa slipped under the covers. “A little, I was on a windy roof for hours… Was everything alright here?” She asked, already turning off the lights.

“Yeah, I didn't talk to anyone after you left, but we will need to make it through a whole day with them and then the gala.” Clarke said, Lexa only hummed in response, already digging herself up into the pillow.

“Good night, Lexa.”

“Good night, Clarke,” Lexa responded sleepily.

Nothing happened for several minutes and then Lexa's hand tentative made it's way closer to Clarke’s, making their fingertips brush. When Clarke drifted off to sleep she was holding Lexa's hand in her own.

~~~~~~~

Clarke woke up to an empty bed, Lexa's side seemed to be long abandoned. It was nine am on a Saturday, what could Lexa possibly be doing in the family manor. Oh god so many things came to mind… Clarke hoped that Lexa wasn't drowning Liz in the pond. She wouldn't blame her, Liz certainly had a talent for waking up murderous tendencies in people and so did her mother now that she thought about it. Clarke got dressed in record time and went to search for Lexa. She didn't have to look long. The Griffin clan was making a lot of noise in the kitchen and as per usual Lexa was in the middle of the storm.

Lexa was in the middle of impressing Clarke's relatives by her cooking skills, showing off how she could flip crepes with elegance Michelin star level chef could be envious of. Couple of Clarke's cousins were next to Lexa chatting about the food excitedly, but most people were already eating around the long kitchen table in the corner of the room, Lexa must have been at it for a while. Liz was at the table as well, but she had a half of grapefruit in front of her and she was frowning sourly at her daughters, each of them had a plate full of crapes covered in some kind of deliciously looking sauce, and they were stuffing into their mouths so fast Clarke worried they could choke. That certainly was interesting to see. She made her way to Lexa.

“Did I miss the hostile kitchen take over?” Clarke asked, only half joking, where did the kitchen staff go? Lexa turned to her, smiling brightly.

“Morning, Sweetie,” she greeted Clarke, reminding her that no matter what was going on between the two of them right now to her family they were that obnoxiously happy couple. Just perfect.

“Lexa is the greatest cook Clarke! Have you tried her crepes?” Clarke's aunt Becky jumped in and was quickly followed by a wave of praises on Lexa's skill from almost everybody in the room. Lexa apparently wasted no time charming the rest of the Griffin clan, anyone who wasn't swept away by her charm the night before was now getting bribed into liking her with food.

Clarke had to admit that it was a relief. Lexa had the room under her charm whether she was telling anecdotes or asking questions she never let the conversation slip anywhere close to Clarke's personal life. It was very liberating. Unfortunately the fact that Lexa was beloved by all also meant that Clarke couldn't get any alone time with her through most of the day.

They were roped into many group activities and then it was off to the nail salon, which Clarke actually had to skip and leave Lexa to her faith with her cousin and aunts. Because Clarke counted as one of the direct heirs and as such she was expected to join a family meeting, where strategies for the evening would be discussed. It was unofficial official meeting.

No one really talked about it in advanced and most of the people who married into the family and had no connection to the main business enterprises were expected to clear away, hence the nail salon. You'd think that a charity gala wouldn't need a big strategy meeting beforehand but you would be wrong. A lot of important and powerful people were attending and it was important that everyone had their targets and knew who to avoid.

They were mostly doing this to create good connections and real in board members who were starting to slip. Basically it all always boiled down to investment and money. Clarke was bored out of her mind. Until a familiar name was mentioned. Cage was attending. Of course he was. They were about to hire Clarke's firm, she should've put it together sooner.

“He looks like a prick,” commented uncle Steve so quietly only Clarke could hear.

“You have no idea,” she whispered back. Steve was sitting next to her, lazily watching the presentation. He had no reason to actually be in the meeting seeing as he was a writer and had virtually no connection but even after twenty years of his resistance his mother (Clarke's grandma) still carried hope that he might decide to get more respectable job (with bigger income) and take over some part of the Griffin empire, which was why she was forcing him into every meeting. It worked out for Clarke, at least she had someone to joke around with.

“Some people say his meds are killing people. And that whole company should've been bankrupt by now.” She shared quietly, knowing that uncle Steve wouldn't dismiss her concerns, even though he wouldn't be able to actually do anything. The presentation moved on. Clarke's father was actually doing most of the speaking this year and he send her a stern look whenever he noticed she was chatting. It was worse than being back at school.

“And we still want to do business with them?” Steve wondered but Clarke didn't get to respond because they got shushed again. This time by grandma Amelia. Clarke sighed, but didn't try to talk again. Steve piped up handful of times and was asked to leave to go “Make sure that the cars are ready, dear.” Clarke wished she could go too, but she stayed where she was.

The meeting took forever to wrap up and when it actually did it was almost time for the gala. Clarke went to look for Lexa, she wasn't in the main lounge but luckily she ran into aunt Becky, who was part of the nail salon expedition. She would surely know where Lexa was, but when Clarke asked her, Becky pursed her lips and shook her head.

“Where's Lexa?” Clarke asked again. Not feeling too well about any of this.

“She didn't come with us to the salon,” her aunt denied.

“What, you all left together!” Clarke distinctly remembered mouthing her apologies as Lexa got dragged away by her excited cousin Tessa, who was certainly one of the lesser evils. “What do you mean she didn't come with you?”

“She ran off once we got to the city. She got a phone call and said she had to deal with work emergency. I'm sorry, Clarke.”

Clarke assured her aunt that it was surely nothing to worry about and left the room as soon as she could without literally running.

She called Lexa but it went straight to voicemail. Clarke hid in her room so she could avoid her mother's questions about where Lexa was and if they were taking one of the limos or driving themselves. Leaning against the door, of the room she tried not to let her thoughts spiral, there was no reason to panic Lexa had the habit of disappearing but she always found her way back. So what if she's a little late. Clarke couldn't care less about the gala, but being abandoned by Lexa was another matter. What if there was no emergency, what if Lexa decided she was sick of her and took off debt or no debt? Clarke forcefully pushed those thoughts away, Lexa wasn't like that. _How well do you know her?_

She called Roan, if there was something going on he would know. It took him full minute to answer and when he did his voice was even more like a growl than usually.

“Doc! Can't really talk right now.”

“Have you heard from Lexa?” Clarke asked but most of her question was drown from background noise coming from the other side, it sounded like someone screaming their lungs out and then it stopped, unnaturally quickly.

“What's going on? Where's Lexa?” Clarke asked again.

“Sorry, that was Friday, she's hungry,” Roan lied. That certainly wasn't a sound any cat would make.

“There was a thing, but Lexa's fine.” Roan continued, and Clarke had no idea whether to believe him that part. Then there was a sound of another voice in the background but Clarke couldn't make it out, so she waited for Roan to come back to the line, tapping her fingers on the doorframe impatiently.

“Fine, so she's going to meet you at the gala, just get there and do your thing she'll be there even though it's really fucking stup-” Clarke swore she could hear something hitting Roan's face. “Just meet her there, she's running a bit late.”

“Was that Lexa? Can I talk to her?” Clarke asked hopefully.

“Sorry, Doc, have to run.” Roan said and Clarke heard something that suspiciously reminded a gunshot just before the call cut off. Where the hell was Lexa?

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Lexa was eyeing the tux she was wearing critically.

“It doesn't really fit.” She complained.

“It doesn't have any blood on it, what else could you want?” Roan asked, he was covered in dirt and blood and Lexa had to admit it was hard to argue with his logic.

“Did Clarke sound mad?” She asked instead.

Roan shrugged, “I was little too busy to analyze her tone of voice. Are you sure we can trust your friend?”

Lexa sighed, calling Anya was a risk, but they were completely out of options.

“It's the safest bet.” Still not that safe, but what else could they do?

“You should come with me, attending a public event right after this is insane.” Roan pointed out for the thirtieth time since Lexa announced she had to make it to the gala.

“It's non negotiable. I promised Clarke.” She replied sternly, making Roan roll his eyes and mumble something about lovesick idiots.

Lexa straightened her bowtie, and checked there was no blood spatter on her face, she had an upscale event to get to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to all of you lovely people still reading and/or commenting!


	11. The Gala

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive!! I know what you're thinking: update on a Wednesday?? What is this, and why the delay? 
> 
> Firstly I want to apologize for the wait, I had some physical issues with my hands and I was unable to write or answer your comments. 
> 
> Secondly this update is an exception after this we are going back to Saturday updates (yes this Saturday included).
> 
> Enough talking lets get on with the show.

Clarke smiled and laughed at a very unfunny joke in efforts of charming the board member she was currently talking to. Her voice was not her own as she sweet talked Mr Harrison into thinking that she considered him just as intelligent and important as he believed himself to be. By the time she was done with him he would be supporting the new project Jake Griffin was proposing, never mind the fact that it wasn't something he originally intended to do.

As they talked Clarke kept discretely glancing to the main entrance in hopes of spotting Lexa, unfortunately so far the assassin was nowhere to be seen. Lexa was ninety minutes late already and Clarke was caught between being worried and being angry. Liz was a nightmare as was Abby. Clarke probably wouldn't have survived the journey to the gala between the two of them if it wasn't for uncle Steve who offered her a ride and her dad's valiant efforts to distract Abby from the fact that Clarke's date ran off without any explanation. Unfortunately Steve didn't get her away before Liz pointing out that Clarke's dates seem to be in the habit of disappearing on her. Which was truly low and mean comment even more so because of how accurate it was.

Rationally Clarke knew this situation was very different from the others but it still hurt to think about. Not to mention that she was far too busy to think about any of that, she had rich people to suck up to. Since the gala started Clarke shook countless hands, smiled so much she worried her face might permanently stay in that happy grimace and adjusted her voice to the sweet and friendly tone no human being can possibly achieve naturally, she called it the customer service voice. However even though it was uncomfortable nobody could argue with the results, she already had a dozen of people promising new business, donating more money or changing their opinions on about projects. She was actually running out of names she was designated to focus on at the family meeting. With a single sleazy exception, who just so happened to weasel his way into Clarke's current conversation.

“Isn't miss Griffin incredible, I bet she'll be taking over the world in no time,” Cage said, interrupting Clarke's carefully prepared performance.

“Mr Wallace,” Clarke greeted Cage, her smile feeling faker than ever. “It's a pleasure to see you tonight.”

“I don't doubt it.” Cage replied and Clarke had to resist the urge to slap the smirk off his face, something about him was just so damn punchable.

Cage and Mr Harrison began chatting and Clarke decided she did all that could be done in regards to winning Harrison over and there was no point in suffering Cage's presence. She opened her mouth to excuse herself from the conversation but as luck would have it Mr. Harrison seemed to have the very same idea and beat her to it, leaving Clarke and _Mr. Wallace_ to catch up.

_Wonderfull._

Cage was smiling far more than he did normally, which made Clarke uncomfortable.

“Worried about being alone with me?” He asked, obviously picking up on her discomfort. That wasn't good, she needed to be more in control, not letting any discomfort bleed out onto the surface. “I hope you're not scared of me Clarke. I promise, I don't bite.”

“Scared of you? No, I don't see how anyone would be scared of spoiled pretty boy like you.” Clarke said and had to suppress a smirk when she saw Cage's face harden at her words. He was too arrogant for his own good.

“You have no idea what I'm capable of Clarke.” He said coldly but Clarke kept her smile.

“Ah something you want to admit to? Hold the thought while I'll go grab the reporters.” Clarke made a move to leave but Cage caught her arm, nearly jerking her back. Clarke saw flash of rage in his eyes but it was gone a second later and grip he had on her loosening as well but his hand remained on her arm.

“I think we got off on the wrong foot. Like it or not, we are working together now and it would be good if we could get along. I assure you that there is a lot more to me than those unfounded accusations you've let sway your opinion of me. It would be best for everyone if you gave me a chance to prove that.” Clarke was having a very hard time believing anything coming out of Cage's mouth. But if he wanted another chance…

“So you'll let me look at all of your labs records?” He narrowed his eyes at her but didn't break the eye contact. “I'll be happy to, after you sign a nondisclosure agreement of course . You understand I can't risk anything getting to the competition. But after that I'll even take you to those labs myself.”

“You will?”

“If it helps improve your opinion of me. I've even discussed the idea with your mother, she was thrilled.” He sounded surprisingly sincere.

Everything about the situation was giving Clarke very creepy feelings including the fact that Cage was still holding her arm.

“Great, you can set the documents over after we sign everything on Monday, now if you wouldn't mind.” She pulled her arm back from him, perhaps a little faster than would've been polite. “Now if you'll excuse me… I really need to go talk to that person over there.” Clarke said, gesturing to a random corner of the room and started walking without waiting for a response.

Clarke was so caught up with getting far away from Cage that she didn't register someone stepping into her path until their bodies collided. Clarke didn't see who it was but they stumbled back and she gripped on their suit to keep them from falling. They did a little spin on the floor but ultimately managed to stay upright. Clarke started to hurriedly apologizing to whoever she just almost knocked over but stopped when she looked up to their face and saw familiar green eyes looking back at her.

“Lexa!” she felt a wave of relief wash over her. Lexa was here!

“Clarke?”

Clarke didn't give Lexa chance to say anything else, bringing the assassin into a hug before she could speak. She was too happy to see Lexa right now to care about how late she was or how worried Clarke have been. So she squeezed her confused assassin in a tight hug. Lexa was probably too shocked to respond but again Clarke didn't give her a chance to catch up, instead breaking the hug in order of leading Lexa somewhere they could talk.

The terrace was perfect destination for them. It was well lit, accessible, and it allowed good view to the main hall through it’s giant windows, and most importantly not many people were willing to suffer the freezing cold February nights had to offer. Clarke on the other hand really could use the fresh air.

“Are you alright?” Lexa asked softly when they reached the terrace. It was an interesting question. Clarke contemplated telling her about Cage. About how something about his sudden willingness to share his secrets was even more unsettling than when he was dodging her accusations. How it had to have been a ploy of some kind. But what if Lexa agreed with everybody else that Clarke was just being paranoid? Lexa had her own very real problems to worry about and she didn't need Clarke's paranoia on top of it. They could talk about Cage later.

“Clarke?” Lexa asked again, bringing a careful hand around Clarke's shoulders, leaving plenty of time for the girl to reject her touch. She didn't, instead Clarke leaned in closer to the assassin, effectively stealing some of her warmth as well enjoying the closeness.

“I'm fine, just dealing with some of these people...” She huffed instead of finish her sentence. “I just want to go home and paint.” Clarke sighed.

“I apologize for leaving you like that, I really thought I'd be back in time for the beginning.”

“Where were you? You were with Roan when I called. What is he even doing in Polis?”

Lexa ducked her head. “It's really not important. We found out that there is a conspiracy between our people. Neither group should be dealing in this stuff but some individuals joined forces to get rich. We just need few more names and then we can put an end to all of it.”

“That is awfully vague, Lexa.” Clarke pointed out and could practically see Lexa's walls pull up even further at the words. Lexa was giving her that confident smirk again, something Clarke could now recognize as utter bullshit.

“Possible deniability is very important thing to have Clarke.”

“So what, you and Roan tortured that out of someone? I've heard screaming on the phone.” She knew she shouldn't be going there even before she finished the sentence.

“This really isn't the place, Clarke.” Lexa said and yeah her defenses were probably to the max now… _Way to go Griffin._

“Is Roan okay? How is his face looking?” Clarke asked after a beat of silence.

“He was fine the last time I saw him.” Lexa confirmed. “He's also still unnecessarily obsessed with the cat.” She added with annoyed eye roll but Clarke could see the sentence for what it was; a chance for a lighter topic.

“Don't tell me that he actually brought Friday along.” It actually wouldn't surprise Clarke since she seen first hand just how taken Roan was with the animal. Both Lexa and Roan refused to tell her where the cat even came from but ever since they broth her in Clarke hasn't seen Friday further than a few feet away from him. It was sweet, such a big man fussing about a small orange creature.

“He left her at your place and he whined about it the whole time. I always knew he was unprofessional but I never realized he was such a baby.” Lexa sounded annoyed but Clarke could tell most of that was just for show, there was even a tiny smile pulling on Lexa's lips.

“I'm still waiting to hear how you guys even got the cat, you know.”

“Mostly by accident,” Lexa shrugged.

“And she's staying indefinitely just like you guys? Because seriously... I might need to set more rules about bringing in strays or I might find myself running a shelter this time next week.”

“Would that be so terrible?”

“I don't mind having you guys, I already told you. Just don't go bringing in tigers and any more criminal elements into my house because we're running out of space.”

Lexa hummed. “I'll keep that in mind.”

Clarke rubbed her hands together the cold air was finally getting to her. But the view was certainly worth it. Twinkling lights decorating the terrace in direct contrast to the deep blue night sky and then there was Lexa. The soft light was certainly doing her incredibly pretty face justice and damn it if that girl could pull off a tux.

“That is a nice tux.” Clarke complimented, feeling like it had to be said even though Lexa's ego probably didn't need the boost.

“Thank you.” Was Lexa blushing? She should kiss her. Clarke wanted to do it and then she saw Lexa's eyes glance down to her own lips. So she did it, gently pulling Lexa's head closer and kissing her slowly. It was just as great as the first time. Lexa moved their bodies closer and Clarke let her deepen the kiss. It was too bad that they couldn't stay like that forever. They still had appearances to make.

“We should get back out there,” Clarke said when they broke apart again. “If I show off with a date I might not receive the family disappointment of the night award after all.” She meant it as a joke but Lexa's face fell.

“Clarke I'm really sorry. I swear I…”

“It's fine I'm kidding. Well mostly… But really I did everything I was suppose to do and now I want to go dancing with a pretty girl and drink some of those ridiculously fancy drinks.” They needed to talk more Clarke knew that but, if she only had one date night with Lexa she wanted to at least enjoy it before something went wrong again.

“If you're sure Clarke.”

“Yeah, I-” Clarke's eyes caught on a darker spot on Lexa's shoulder. It looked like- “Is that blood?”

Lexa caught Clarke's hand into her own, gently kissing the knuckles. And then quickly pulled them towards the door.

“Of course not, Clarke. Didn't you say something about dancing? I'm a great dancer we should go dance.”

~~~~~~

Lexa being a great dancer turned out to be a slight over statement. Clarke concluded so after having her feet stomped on several times and accidentally bumping into the mayor of Polis, who luckily took it gracefully. And after some slightly awkward introductions and apologies were made and Clarke decided that it was enough of dancing for one evening.

“It's the shoes, Clarke. I'm really not this bad of a dancer… Stop laughing! You know how light on my feet I normally am!” Lexa argued heatedly.

Clarke really wanted to stop laughing, but Lexa was so genuinely grumpy about not being perfect at something for once that she couldn't. She needed to tell Roan that the puppy analogy he came up with was perfect the next time she saw him.

The rest of the night flew by. Having Lexa by her side was great. She charmed everyone they came across. She made Clarke laugh, and she took great care to annoy Liz as much as possible whenever they saw her. Unfortunately the one person Clarke didn't want Lexa to meet just so happened to stop Lexa when she went to get them drinks.

Clarke saw Cage approach Lexa at the bar and was torn between running to them and hiding somewhere out of sight. She didn't actually reach any decision when she realized her legs were already taking her to the pair. (Quite rudely leaving the conversation she was suppose to be participating in.)

“As I was saying you seem awfully familiar. Are you sure we haven't met before?” Cage was asking Lexa, that sleazy smile of his plastered on his face. No Clarke didn't like seeing him anywhere near her girlf... Lexa.

“Here you are Honey, I wondered what was keeping you.” Clarke interjected whatever Lexa was about to say, also taking the second drink from Lexa casually. Lexa went along with the phrase honey just as smoothly, join her free hand with Clarke's and kissing her cheek sweetly. God bless her, she didn't even know who the person was but she would play the “in love couple” at the slightest of hints. Clarke loved her so much. Not literally of course. She didn't love-LOVE her… ehm.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Love. Mr Wallace here seems to be mistaking me with someone.”

“Ms Griffin, I didn't know you were here with a date.” That bastard said with far too honest surprise. “I'm afraid I can't place miss Woods, but I could swear that I've seen her somewhere.”

“You could swear a lot of things.” Clarke sniped. “I'm afraid we need to go assist my grandmother with her return home, so if you would excuse us.”

Lexa waited until they were out of earshot before commenting. “I don't like that guy.”

“No one likes that guy,” Clarke responded without missing a beat.

“Investor?”

“Business associate, unfortunately. It's complicated,” she sighed. “Anyway I wasn't kidding, I wanted to talk to grandma Amelia before the night is over.”

“I should've worn my kevlar west under the suit.”

“She's not so bad, Lexa.” Clarke chided her affectionately as they went on to look for the head of the Griffins.

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Lexa felt bad for missing so much of the Gala. She also knew that she needed to be honest with Clarke if their relationship was to stand even the slightest of chances. But where was the line between the bloody and unpleasant parts of Lexa's reality? Was there even a line? Clarke would surely go running if she ever saw that part of Lexa. But this night was their chance to play pretend. To be the happy couple, in love. Lexa needed it even if only for the night.

Things were going pretty well. They were constantly touching and laughing. Clarke's grandmother was still very weary of Lexa, going as far as sending her off while she talked to Clarke about something but other then that things were good. Lexa actually couldn't remember a time she had this much fun surrounded by people. It was the Clarke effect again. In retrospect she should've known it was too good not to turn into another disaster.

The evening was coming to an end and Clarke and Lexa were trying to talk intoxicated uncle Steve out of his idea for a drunken speech on top of the nearest table, when she saw someone who had no business being anywhere near them.

Titus, Anya's right hand man and the second best hitman Trikru had to offer, was standing by the stairs to the second floor, watching them.

Did Anya send him? Was Lexa wrong to trust her? But that didn't make any sense Anya didn't know where Lexa was… unless Roan told her, but he wouldn't… would he? In any case she couldn't let Clarke get involved in any of it. If Titus was here to kill her she would deal with him out of sight. He was one of the people who trained Lexa there was no way he wanted to make a spectacle out of killing her at such a public event. That was probably the only reason she was still alive. He wanted to get her alone. Kill her quickly and quietly, no casualties. Lexa appreciated that, she would give him the same courtesy. But what should she tell Clarke?

“I don't want to go home!! It's gonna be really funny guys come on! Let's steal the horses!” Steve protested Clarke's efforts to get him to leave.

“We'll do that some other time Steve! Come on, this party is boring, we'll go somewhere way better.”

“You... You better not be lying to me kid.”

“I would never... Right Lexa?”

“Get him home.” Lexa couldn't tell her. She saw Titus disappear on the stairs after throwing her a look. There was no time to explain, leaving someone as dangerous roam freely around Clarke's family was out of the question. He was a dead man walking for coming near Clarke. _It's your fault for being around her…_

“Lexa?”

“Take a cab home with Steve. I need to go.”

“What?” Clarke asked, her anger over being ordered around obvious. And angry Clarke didn't follow orders, she would get herself hurt.

“He's drunk and it's going to be a disaster if we leave him here and I need to go do something. My business!” She added harshly, too harshly. It was to stop Clarke from arguing. But the hurt that flashed across Clarke's face felt like being stabbed. Unfortunately there was no taking it back now.

“Will you take him home Clarke?” Lexa asked firmly.

“Yes.” Clarke was frowning at her.

“Good, go.” Lexa said and walked away, she already stayed too long, Titus had a head start.

~~~~~

Lexa couldn't find him. She checked all the vantage points, she found an empty room that would've been perfect for an ambush and nothing. It didn't make any sense. He let her see him go upstairs, the challenge was clear. Titus wasn't one to play with his targets. He wanted her dead and he didn't shoot her straight away so he was looking for an honorable fight... just like he taught her. But where was he? He wouldn't play with a target, but if she was being played with, maybe she wasn't the target at all.

She went back to the main hall, it was almost empty now, Abby and Jake were still there talking with the last of the guests but mostly it was the waiting staff cleaning up.

“Lexa!” she turned around, feeling like she was dropped into ice water at the sound of Steve's voice.

“What are you still doing here, where is Clarke?”

Steve stumbled towards her and something in his hands caught Lexa's attention. It was Clarke's purse.

“I went to the bathroom to, you know… Freshened up and so I wouldn't throw up in public- and Clarke said she would wait… But she wasn't there when I came back. She must've dropped this…” he said holding up the purse with shaky fingers. “Have you seen her? I need to give her-her purse back, girls carry everything in there, all the secrets…” He rambled on but Lexa wasn't listening, she took the purse and ran.

Everything was starting to make horrible sense. Titus never intended to fight her, he wanted to distract her.

_Love is weakness._

He would hurt Clarke just to make the point that she should've listened to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no another cliffhanger!  
> (Feel free to come yell at me in comments. )


	12. Loss

Roan was back at Clarke's home, enjoying a quiet night in, for the first time in months. Nothing teaches a person to appreciate the availability of hot shower and comfy couch as being reduced to crawling through sewers and sleeping in an abandoned warehouse for a couple of days. He probably should be using his chance to go to bed but with Friday currently curled up in his lap he was reluctant to wake her by standing up.

Uninformed individual might say that he was also staying up because he was scared of the meeting with Anya they were supposed to have tomorrow. But that claim would have been terribly incorrect because Roan Frost wasn't scared of anything. And anyone claiming otherwise was a god damn liar. He simply didn't have a good feeling about contacting Anya.

Lexa was certain that the leader of Trikru was the only person who could help them at this point but Roan wasn't so sure. Yes, Anya probably wasn't trying to shift the foundations of her own organization and maybe she even cared about Lexa enough to help her get the target off her back but Roan was a very different story.

His mother and Anya were at war not so long ago for fuck sakes. There were no guarantees that she wouldn't kill him and collect the bounty. Bounty his own mother would pay for his head. Just the thought was leaving a foul taste in his mouth. But he wasn't going to run, not after everything he would rather die trying to prove to his people he wasn't a traitor and he did trust Lexa.

Friday yawned, bringing him out of his dark thoughts. He gently patted her head, she instantly nuzzled back into his hand. At least he finally got to take Friday home with him, although it technically wasn't his home.

As a child he always wanted to have a cat. Of course his mother said that he couldn't have one. But when he was nine he found a stray kitten and it was so sweet that he was sure that Nia would change her mind when she saw it... That was the last time he directly disobeyed any of her rules. Going so far that even as an adult man he couldn’t bring himself to actually get a cat of his own. Because some part of him would always be worried that his mother would find out and make him kill it too.

However that didn't stop him from befriending Friday, a stray cat that hanged around one of Azgeda's bars. He used to leave her extra bits of food whenever the opportunity arose and pretended disinterest when someone pointed out the cat's presence.

Most of their men ignored her but some detested cats and chased her away, and if those men just so happened to get sent out of town more often than others or even have unfortunate accidents while trying to harm her, it was none of Roan's concerns.

He was about to get up and get to bed when his phone rang. It was Lexa. Probably calling to set up a plan for tomorrow. He answered. But the voice on the line wasn't the Lexa he came to know in the past few days. It was the sort of cold blood thirsty voice he expected from the notorious Natblida. The conversation was short and to the point; someone took Clarke and whoever it was going to die horribly. If Roan wasn't involved in it he needed get them more weapons and meet up with Lexa at the house in two hours once she made it back from Polis.

Roan got off the phone and had to resist the urge to crush it in his hand. Clarke being in danger because of this whole mess was wrong on so many levels. Roan never made any meaningful connections with people outside of Azgeda which was why he was jealous of Lexa having one with Clarke. Pretty doctor girl completely outside of their world. He never got to ask how exactly that happened but she was far too comfortable patching up people in her kitchen for it to be new to her.

And the way Clarke doted on his injuries and told him off for not taking enough care of himself made him feel strange. Not even his mother would care enough to yell at him for that. She would yell at him for being useless or for risking the operation by getting hurt, not out of concern for his person. But Clarke seemed to genuinely care about his health right after meeting him, it was bizarre. Hell, Clarke even let him bring a cat into her home. So maybe he didn't know Clarke for long and taking her was certainly an attack on Lexa not him, but he was taking it personally anyway. Clarke didn't deserve this. Lexa was clearly about to go on a murder spree to get Clarke back and Roan was right there with her.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Clarke struggled against the ziplock bonds on her hands. She was being kidnapped and the worst part of it all was that it wasn't even an unexpected development at this point. Of course, she would get kidnapped! How could she not, with everything that happened in the past week? She was probably going to be tortured and killed and that's the moral lesson of the Clarke Griffin life story: helping wayward assassins will get you murdered horribly, kids.

Clarke wasn't entirely sure what happened, one minute she was waiting for Steve to puke his guts out and the next some kind of cloth was being pressed against her face and she was losing consciousness, unable to fight off whoever attacked her. Now she was being driven in some kind of van with a bag over her head and bumping around the back space of the vehicle. Seat belts were apparently not included in her kidnaping package.

She tried to sit up but it only lead to her discovering that her legs were tied together as well and then hitting her head on something. This wasn't going to end well for Clarke from the looks of things.

Clarke didn't want to think about being killed so she tried to think about her other problem; Lexa. She started acting strange and cold earlier, ordering her to go home with Steve. That had to be related to her getting kidnapped. But Lexa couldn't have been behind this, could she? No. If Lexa wanted to kidnap her to force the Griffins to pay ransom or something she could've done it a hundred times over since they met.

The kidnaping could be related to Lexa's work though, if someone followed Lexa back to the gala and believed them to be a couple, maybe they wanted to use the relationship as Lexa's weakness. Roan did say that Lexa had quite the reputation, it made sense her enemies would look for weaknesses and their public show of affection played right into it. If that was the case maybe she would make it out alive after all, Lexa was smart she wouldn't fall into their trap.

_Or maybe she's smart enough to let you die…._

Okay, that wasn't very nice stream of thoughts. Do over. Maybe it wasn't Lexa related at all. Clarke's family had its own enemies, maybe this was all about money. Some creep wanted to make a buck and extort the Griffins, the police would get called and they would surely find Clarke and return her home safely in no time. For some reason that option felt a lot less realistic than the previous theories.

t felt like the journey lasted forever and Clarke was sure she collected million bruises from the careless ride in the back of some sort of van but finally the car stopped. Clarke was scared of what was to come next but she was also relieved that the waiting was over, she would either die now or get some answers, no more darkness, no more fear.

~~~~

Someone carried her out of the van, she pretended to be still asleep rather than struggle, maybe her kidnapper would give her an opportunity to escape if they thought that she was unconscious. They walked up some stairs, pass several voices and then she was suddenly being dropped down. By some miracle she didn't yelp at the sudden fall into nothingness, and surprisingly she bounced on something moderately soft, couch of some sorts.

“What the hell?” woman's voice from somewhere in the room shouted. “I don't want the corpse here!”

“She's not dead,” said a much rougher voice from above Clarke, likely the man who dropped her.

“What do you mean she's not dead? Cage was pretty clear about what we should do with her, and you're not killing her here!”

_Cage?!!_ Cage wanted her dead?! That motherf***g piece of shit!

“I want to talk to her first.”

“Have you lost your mind? We have two lunatics on a rampage trying to find and kill us and you want to chat to some office girl who messed with that frat boys power trip?”

“She knows Natblida, I saw them together. We could use her to solve all of our problems.”

“Cage isn't going to like that.” The woman pointed out.

“Who cares. He won't find out and if he does we'll let him know just how little power he actually has.”

Clarke wasn't sure she was getting it right but it sounded like being seen with Lexa might've actually saved her life, who would've thought?

The two went on to talk about some shipment getting delayed and Clarke hoped to god it would distract them from the questioning Clarke plan because she had a feeling it wasn't going to end with her politely declining to answer.

~~~~

“They killed nine of my men just today!” the man complained.

“This isn't a joke we are literally running out of people to do the job,” the woman continued.

Clarke had to stiffen a laugh. Laughing about people being killed was something she normally wouldn't condone but some situations deserved an exception. After listening to those two argue for the past half hour revealed some interesting things. Like the fact that Lexa and Roan were apparently doing some real damage to the brilliant drug ring these two, Cage and who knows else were trying to run behind the backs of Azgeda and Trikru alike. Clarke had to resist the urge to ask them how stupid they could possibly be if they thought that they could actually pull it off.

“It was your man who let them escape!”

“How was he suppose to know that they'd use a fucking cat!”

“A cat is not a weapon and if Azgeda had some basic sense of…”

Clarke tried staying quiet she really did but upon hearing about a cat she choked on her own spit and had to go into coughing fit, alerting her kidnappers that she was awake. Great.

Moments later she was being pushed into sitting position and the smelly bag was finally removed from her head.

She blinked, blinded by the sudden light.

“Clarke Griffin, you've got some explaining to do.” The man was bald and long scars lined his face, he didn't look too friendly.

“Who are you?” Clarke asked in the most trembling voice she could muster, to be fair sounding scared really wasn't a huge challenge in these circumstances.“What is this? My family will pay whatever you ask, just let me make the call…”

“Oh, money isn't the issue here. We want to know about Natblida.” Spoke the woman. She was sitting on a table, her hair was get black and she had a scar similar to Roan's on the side of the face. Was that an Azgeda thing? Seemed kind of drastic.

“Who? I don't know any…”

It's been a while since she was slapped in the face so hard her head spun but it was just as unpleasant as she remembered.

The man pulled his hand back. “I saw you with her, no point in lying to us.”

“I'm sorry, I'm not lying, I met a lot of people tonight just describe me who you…”

“I saw you two kissing, now let's try this again...” he said looming ominously close to Clarke's face. Luckily she already came up with a plan on what to say.

“The only person I kissed was my girlfriend, Lexa.” Clarke cried out, in fake confusion.

“Lexa?”

“Girlfriend?”

“Don't hit me!” Should she cry? It felt appropriate but Clarke wasn't good at crying on command.

“What do you know about Lexa?”

Well, she definitely couldn't tell them that she saved Lexa's life and let her and Roan set up headquarters in Clarke's home. However she already had a well practiced backstory to tell.

So Clarke started recounting all the details of the fake relationship Lexa and her came up with over the weekend. It was the only option she came up with that gave her a fighting chance of survival.

There was no way she could get away with lying about not knowing Lexa at all, and if she told them the truth would probably lead to painful torture for more information. But maybe she could convince them that she was someone to Lexa. Someone she cared for or someone she wanted to use for her own gain, but someone she would come for, a bait. And hopefully someone weak and clueless enough that they wouldn't bother with torture.

“... and I wanted her to meet the family this weekend, she's the sweetest person I have ever met in my life.” That earned her a scoff from the dark haired woman. Well screw her, that part was actually true -Lexa is a sweetie deep down.

“So through all of this you never asked what exactly she does for a living?”

“She's like a florist?” Clarke whined pathetically. “I really don't think you have the right Lexa, she wouldn't hurt a fly. She offered to re-decorate our whole office for a discount price!”

They exchanged glances. Clarke waited patiently for the next question but none came, instead they went to talk outside the door. Giving Clarke perfect opportunity to search her surroundings for any way to escape.

She was on a couch in a makeshift office, nothing terribly useful in sight, aside from a desk and few chairs the room was clamored with boxes. The only window was high up and too and small to be any good and the door was being blocked by her kidnapers. No, this wasn't the time to make her daring escape, but maybe she could get her hands on a phone… Clarke noticed one lying right on the desk only few steps away. She could make it.

Clarke made a move to stand up on her still bound together feet but as soon as she did the door was being pulled open again. Clarke's heart raced as she moved back down on the couch, pretending that nothing happened.

The man went straight to her and Clarke froze at the sight of a knife in his hands. She fucked up, they weren't going to keep her alive to bait Lexa... they were killing her and she couldn't think of anything else to say to change their mind. When the men knelt down in the last second and instead of slitting her throat went to cut the bonds on her legs instead, Clarke couldn't help the strangled cry of relive that escaped her. She watched him with wide eyes not daring to make a sound as he freed her legs.

The man pocketed the knife once he finished with the bonds but Clarke didn't have much time to be relieved because when he stood back up he pulled a gun from behind his back instead and cocked it, aiming directly at Clarke's face.

“You won't lie to us. You won't give us any problems or I'll kill you. Understand?” Clarke didn't trust her voice so she just nodded.

“Good, now get up, I'll take you to your room. If you so much as think of running you're dead.”

Clarke stood up and obediently let herself be led out of the room, taking advantage of the fact that her face was no longer covered, to memorize her surroundings. Any and all information would come in handy in planning her escape.

They didn't go very far before Clarke had another curveball thrown at her. The bald man took her to a bigger room filled with boxes with MountWeather logo on them, several people sat around a long set of tables, repackaging vials of some kind of red liquid. The whole room was stinking sweat, weed and generally poor ventilation. Couple of heads turned towards them as they walked in and Clarke suddenly realized that the very fact that they didn't bother blinding her again wasn't a good sign for her odds of walking out of there alive.

Fortunately she didn't have time to dwell on it before her kidnapper spoke.

“You,” barked Baldy at someone in a dark corner of the room, “lock her in the cellar.” The man didn't waste a time before following the order,immediately jumping out of his seat and walking to them only to falter when he got closer and his eyes met Clarke's.

His face didn't betray much of the surprise he must've felt at seeing her but Clarke just knew he was feeling exactly as shocked as she was. After all one usually didn't really expect to see a familiar face in a drug den. But there he was, gun in hand, glancing from her to Baldy, Lincoln.

Lincoln, the ever so amazing boyfriend of one of Clarke's best friends in the whole world. Apparently part of a gang within a gang and about to help possibly kill Clarke. How was this her life?

The bald man picked up on Lincoln's hesitation. “Is there a problem?”

“None.” Lincoln responded, shrugging his shoulders. “Just surprised that this is who Natblida went for. Doesn't seem her type… ” _Excuse you?_ Clarke though.

“I don't care, get her to the cellar and make sure she stays there.”

“Yes, Titus.” Lincoln replied, already grabbing Clarke by the shoulder to steer her to another door.

So Baldy's name was Titus? She should remember that, Lexa would definitely want names of people involved in this, assuming that Clarke lived to tell the tale.

~~~

Clarke let Lincoln tug her through a narrow stairway. Neither of them spoke, their steps and increasingly more distant voices from upstairs the only sounds. Clarke couldn't wrap her mind around Lincoln's presence in a place like this. Was he going to help her? The Lincoln she thought she knew would but he also wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this. So what did Clarke know?

They reached an empty corridor, stoping by the first open door to their left and the tiny spark of hope Clarke had went out. It was a small dark room. The cellar, not some kind of exit Lincoln was secretly taking her to. Lincoln finally looked Clarke in the eyes again and then hissed at her. “What are you doing here?!”

“What about this looks to you like it was my idea!” Clarke hissed back, helplessly tugging against the restraints on her hands. That at least seemed to shut Lincoln up momentarily so Clarke continued. “What are _you_ doing with these people? How could you do this to Octavia?”

“I'm doing this for Octavia!” Clarke gave him an unimpressed look, making his gaze falter.“It's complicated” he whispered after a moment.

“I'm pretty sure Octavia wouldn't want you to leave me here to die!” Clarke said simply. She didn't believe he would actually let her go at this point.

Lincoln didn't have anything to say to that so he only pushed Clarke to the cellar and locked the door behind her.

Clarke cursed after him but soon even the echo of his steps disappeared, leaving Clarke completely alone in the dark once again.


	13. What do you want?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're slowly but surely approaching the end of this story. Shout out to all of you beautiful souls that are still reading and commenting!!

Breaking into Anya's apartment wasn't new to Lexa. She used to do it all the time. Sometime she did it with a box of donuts for breakfast and sometimes she did it to steal food from Anya’s fridge or even to borrow a book but every single of those times she did it knowing that Anya wouldn't be upset with her presence. This time around Lexa had a gun in her hand and there was a slight possibility that Anya would be on the receiving end of it’s bullets. Lexa really hoped that it wasn't going to be the case.

Unfortunately Anya was possibly the only person who was better at sneaking around than Lexa and Lexa’s hopes to catch her still asleep were fruitless. Anya was already up, armed and aware of Lexa as soon as she entered.

As Lexa quietly rounded the corner of the entry she found Anya leaning against a wall of her living room, positioned so that the couch was between Lexa and her and next to a possible escape root through the open balcony door. Of course Anya didn't actually need to escape anywhere, since she currently had a gun pointed at Lexa's head. Anya was a good shot and Lexa knew better than to think that she would miss or hesitate, she raised her hands up. Waiting for the odds to change to her benefit.

“Lexa. Out of all of our people I would never believe it would be you to betray me. ” Anya said coldly. Lexa didn't let any emotion show on her face.

“I could say the same thing about you. Sending me to an ambush with faulty equipment… How much money are you making now that you and Titus found a way to move drugs without Nia?”

Anya frowned. “Titus said that you went after Azgeda without provocation. I tried contacting you, I even negotiated with Nia about letting us handle it, but then you started attacking our own people!” Anya sounded sincerely upset she wasn’t one to show emotions easily.

“How could you do that to our people after everything!?” Anya asked angrily. Would she pull the trigger if Lexa argued back? No time like the present to find out.

“So you had Titus take Clarke, out of spite?” Lexa barked back just as angrily.

“Who the hell is Clarke?” Anya asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“How bout you drop the gun and we tell you.” Roan spoke, aiming his own gun at the back of Anya's head. He made surprisingly little noise as he scaled up Anya's balcony and although Lexa would never admit it she was impressed by his agility. Lexa genuinely preferred working alone but there was something satisfying in having someone to cover your back and the so called prince of Azgeda was proving himself to be reliable.

“Roan?” Anya couldn't keep the surprise from flaring in her voice. So she really did still believe that Roan stole from Azgeda and ran? Lexa let some of the tension drop from her shoulders hopefully Anya wasn't part of the problem after all.

“Peace, Anya. I think that we've both been played with.” Lexa waited for her oldest friend to make a choice that could doom them all. After what felt like a lifetime but probably lasted no longer than two heartbeats, Anya lowered the gun.

“You have much to explain, the both of you.” Anya's face was back to its stoical mask however Lexa could tell that she relaxed a little as well. The atmosphere in the room was still tense but at least they were getting somewhere.

 

~~~~~~~~

 

Roan and Anya didn’t get along well but despite their natural distaste for each other no blood was spilled that morning in Anya’s apartment.

Anya told them how the events of the past week went down from her perspective. Calming she had no idea Lexa was given an assignment and how Titus came to her on Saturday claiming Lexa has gone mad and attacked the leader of Azgeda on Friday and then killed three of their own people on Saturday. Anya explained how she tried contacting her but Lexa went underground only to resurface later with Roan by her side and killed more Trikru members.

“And you believed him?” Lexa asked, not doing so well on hiding how hurt that made her feel.

“What was I suppose to think Lexa? You didn’t exactly bother explaining things to me yourself and I've seen the bodies, it was clearly your work!”

“They tried to kill me first! They blew up my safe house!”

“Titus said you blew up the safe house, with our people in it! Why would he lie?”

“Because he’s a fucking baldheaded traitor who wants to get everyone high!” Roan growled his way into the argument. He wasn’t pointing his gun at Anya anymore at Lexa’s insistence but he still clutched it tightly in his hand.

“I wasn’t asking you!” Anya hissed back.

“He’s right,” Lexa jumped in before Roan could escalate things further. “Titus is the one behind the new drug flooding the street. Azgeda actually weren’t lying to us they had nothing to do with the R.E.D. drug, well their leadership anyway.” Lexa said launching to explain her and Roan’s sides of the story. How Azgeda was suspecting Trikru of running the drug game after Roan got set up to take the fall for outrageous chunk of money going missing months ago. Money, they suspected, that funded the newly forming drug ring that secretly manifested between power-hungry members of both Azgeda and Trikru. Unfortunately she also had to explain Clarke’s involvement in the situation which was painful to do. Lexa had been crushed with guilt about dragging Clarke into the mess and the more she spoke the more obvious it was that whatever happened to Clarke was Lexa’s fault.

Anya listen to her speak patiently, sometimes interrupting to ask about details Lexa left out but by the time Lexa finished she was quiet.

“We need to find out where they took Clarke and if she’s still alive. It shouldn’t be too hard now that we know that Titus is behind everything. Anya looked at her strangely, probably considering all the things Lexa left out about Clarke.

“You should’ve come to me earlier,” Anya said with a sigh. “I know exactly who to ask about all this, although its going to cost us.”

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Clarke found that the life of a hostage wasn't as glamorous as movies would have one believe. She was shivering with cold in a small room and bored out of her mind. She had no idea how much time has past, she slept and woke up couple of times but she always came too more tired, cold and thirsty.

The only exciting part of her stay was when she discovered a light switch right next to the locked door. However the room was equally boring and disgusting with the light on, something suspiciously like mold covered the walls of the small windowless room a complimentary pile of rooting wood was in one corner of the room Clarke assumed it was a shelf at some point.

She tried planning her escape, but she didn't have enough information to come up with anything that could realistically work. She tried to free her hands but all she accomplished was painfully removing some of her own skin.

Clarke was sitting by the door listening for any sign someone was coming to get her. She was hungry and cold and it felt like she was in there forever. Why did they keep her hands tied? It felt like an overkill. What was she going to do, other than be little less uncomfortable? She fidgeted against the bonds again. She also recalled Roan’s advice to break her thumbs if she was ever in a situation like this. It seemed a bit drastic and she'd still be stuck in the room with a broken thumb on top of her other problems. Suddenly a sound of foot steps broke her out of her thoughts. She forced herself to stand up on her shaky feet. The person stopped by the door and soon Clarke could hear the key clank in the lock. The door opened, showing tiredly looking Lincoln leaning in the frame.

“Good you’re up, we don’t have a lot of time, Ontari wants to talk to you.”

Clarke suddenly realized why they kept her hands tied because if it weren't for the ziplock she would be punching him in his stupid face and to hell with the consequences.

“And if I don’t come with you you’ll shoot me?” She asked angrily.

Lincoln frowned at her. “This is serious.”

“I’m not laughing. I want to know. Will you shoot me? Was everything a lie?”

“I don't want to hurt you Clarke.” Lincoln said, pleading with her again to move and follow him. She listened to him this time, deciding that escalating things further wasn’t in her best interest.

“What's really going on between you and Lexa?” Lincoln asked quietly as she stepped out of her _cell._

“Were dating, haven't you heard?” Clarke replied.

“Everyone knows Natblida doesn't date, you might've fooled Titus but he hasn't seen you lie your way out of getting busted for B&E either.” Lincoln pointed out making Clarke sigh.

“What do you want from me?” she asked. They were standing under the staircase now but neither of them moved to it.

“I want you to trust me.” Lincoln whispered and Clarke rolled her eyes at that.

“Ha.”

“Look, I'm trying to do what's right Clarke. You don't have any idea what you got yourself into but if I can do anything at all to get you out of this I need you to remain calm, pretend we don't know each other and let me take care of it. I'm on the good side here.”

“Which side is that?” Clarke asked. She could hear a muffled roar of laughter from the room upstairs, both her and Lincoln briefly looked to the door on top of the stairs, but it remained closed.

“The side that doesn't want Mount Weather's drugs to flood the street.”

“Mount Weather? What do you know about Mount Weather?”

“Enough to be concerned.” Clarke was really done with everyone acting like she didn't deserve the full amount of information which she was about to inform Lincoln of but he spoke before she had the chance.

“We don’t have the time to do this I need to bring you to Ontari.”

“Who is Ontari?”

“You met her last night. She's about to be the new leader of Azgeda. Just don't make her mad, Clarke.”

Clarke nodded and let Lincoln lead her up the stairs. She did’t trust him as far as she could throw him at this point, but it wasn’t like she had a whole lot of choices.

The room upstairs was full of people Clarke didn't recognized. All talking had stopped as soon as they entered, every head turning to Clarke. She had the uncomfortable feeling that she had been the subject of their conversation. Some glared at her angrily others only curiously. Yet no one dared to outright comment. One woman whispered something to the man sitting next to her, Clarke couldn't catch the words but judging by the woman's sneer it wasn't anything nice.

Lincoln didn't let them linger, grabbing onto Clarke's arm, he practically dragged her out of the room. Clarke stumbled next to him and swore to herself she was never going to a formal event in heels again. Or wearing a dress for that matter. She would be taking a page out of Lexa's book and go in a tux, that would be much more acceptable hostage outfit. Maybe she should just try not getting kidnapped next time but that was not something one could exactly plan.

Lincoln knocked on the door to the same office Clarke was lead from earlier and waited for them to be commanded inside. They found Ontari seated on the desk again, Clarke briefly wondered if the chair ever actually got used or if it was there for appearances sake. She was talking to a woman Clarke didn't recognize but there was a small scar on her face far too similar to the ones Ontari and Roan had. Nothing about either of the two women was reassuring. Clarke felt like a lamb thrown into a room with wolves. Having her hands still tied didn't exactly help the feeling of helplessness that came over her.

“Finally,” Ontari reacted to their entry, jumping off the table and stalking towards Clarke. “You,” she hissed at Clarke. “…are far more trouble than you're worth.”

Clarke didn't flinch away from Ontari despite the sudden violation of her personal space. She made herself face the angry woman.

“I'm sorry?” she said weakly. Ontario looked her up and down but her next words were directed to the other people in the room.

“Leave us.”

Despite not being sure if Lincoln was to be trusted Clarke still didn't want him to leave her in this situation but it wasn't like her opinion was being taken into consideration. Both Lincoln and the nameless woman were already moving out of the room, closing the door behind them. Would Clarke get out of this alive? Looking at Ontari's dark hateful expression she wasn't so sure.

Uncomfortable silence filled the room. Clarke was sure her heart beating against her chest was the loudest sound present and that the other woman could probably hear it as well. Ontari stayed quite she circled Clarke and finally paced back to the desk to lean against, as she eyed Clarke thoughtfully. Clarke felt like the silence might have been more threatening than anything the woman could say.

After a few minutes Ontari sighed, glaring at Clarke.

“Titus believes that the Natblida will come for you if we give her the opportunity. He thinks that we need you alive…” She said finally.

Clarke's mouth was too dry, and standing tall was taking up most of her energy how was she suppose to respond to Ontari’s statement was beyond her. Acting the clueless rich girl that was in way over her head wasn't hard to do last night but it could only take her so far. So she kept quiet, waiting to hear what else was on Ontari's mind.

“Cage wanted you to die slowly and painful… He even wanted us to take you to him and let him play… I would've let him get his kinks in but lucky for you Titus has the whole Trikru superiority complex and he shot that plan down even before we knew you were fucking Lexa.”

“So what do you want?” Clarke asked, her voice was rough and she had to keep herself from going into a coughing fit.

“I want to know how you feel about Lexa.” Ontari said, smiling. “She lied to you, she was using you for her own benefit and even if she does take the bait and come to your rescue she'll only be doing it to try and outsmart us, despite what Titus might think I know Natblida, and she wouldn't put anyone's life before her own… I want to know if you'd rather let her use you again or if you want to survive.”

“You want me to help you?” Clarke asked, actually surprised. To what?

“I want you to be the one to kill her.” Ontari said after a moment of silence. Clarke didn’t see that coming at all. How could anyone expect her to do that?

“Even if I could. Why would I do that?”

“Because letting you stay alive is going to cause us difficulties, it already has. And when we finally kill Natblida you'll have outlived your usefulness, you must realize that.” Ontari spoke calmly and it made Clarke feel even colder than she already was. She clenched her fists while Ontari continued. “But we could use someone with your connections in the long run…. If you can prove your worth.”

“If I kill Lexa.” She wanted to throw up just saying the words.

“Its the only way you'll ever walk away alive from this.” _Fuck you._

“She wouldn't hesitate to do the same to you.”

“How would I even, she’s... You people couldn't kill her how would you expect me to manage it.” Clarke was genuinely curious.

“She won't see it coming from you. She won't expect you to slit her throat, and watching her realize that it's her lover who killed her will be so incredibly satisfying.”

“You're sick!” Clarke spat. But Ontari didn't take her words personally, she shook her head at Clarke.

“You have no idea what Lexa is capable of. She played you. She gets close to people only to betray them, its what she does.” Ontari said mockingly. “Do you have any idea why everyone is so scared of Natblida?” Clarke didn’t know what to say to that which Ontari took as an invitation to continue.

“She started out as one of Trikru gunmen, she was good but her name didn't make grown men want to run and hide back then. The war between our people was raging at the time… and then it came to light that she had been sneaking around with one of Azgeda's own, a real star-crossed lovers type of story. But when it came down to it Lexa preferred to get ahead. She killed the girl, let her bleed out alone to help Trikru get more territory as well as force us to cease fire.” Ontari seemed to be shaking with anger as she spoke her venomous words. She had been lying, though. Lexa wouldn't do something like that.

“She used the girl who loved her to wipe out our people and then she killed her lover as well.”

“You're lying.”

Ontari shook her head again.

“Her name was Costia, she was my sister.” Clarke felt as if her insides have been turned to ice Ontari had to be lying but there were too many emotions playing in her voice and face. It really didn't feel like she was lying.

“I knew they were together.” Ontari continued. “Costia swore that they were in love and planning to runaway together. Lexa promised me she'd protect her and I was stupid enough to believe her. Natblida can be convincing when she wants to as I'm sure you know. Eventually I realized that something wasn't right but I didn't get to them in time. I found my sister lying in a pool of her own blood– Left alone to die.” _Lexa wouldn't do that she just wouldn't._

“You asked me what I want; I want Lexa to die feeling just as alone and betrayed as Costia did while she was _dying_.”

Clarke felt numb. It was impossible yet somehow far too real at the same time.

Then a knife appeared in Ontari's hand and she stepped up to Clarke. Clarke flinched away, fully expecting Ontari to stab her for whatever reason. But Ontari used the knife to cut off the bonds on Clarke's hands instead. Something about the knife caught Clarke's attention. Flowery design on a handle, small but wicked sharp, just like the one Lexa threatened her with the night they met. The one Clarke stashed into her dresser and forgotten about.

Once she freed Clarke's hands Ontari gave her a wicked smile. “So will you help me get justice or will you be another one of Natblida's victims?” Clarke felt sick to her stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments make my day!


	14. The Friend of a Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Saturday folks!

“You want to get feds involved? Have you gone completely insane?” Roan yelled.

Anya gave him a cold look, pursing her lips.

“As I was saying… They already are involved, Indra approached me months ago in the hopes that I could discreetly give her somewhere to start their investigation. I couldn't help at a time but Indra's people are capable, they are bound to know something useful by now.”

“You don't think Titus took precautions, knowing Indra of all people was after him?” Lexa inquired doubtfully despite the flicker of hope Anya's confidence has sparked.

“He would've, if he knew.” Anya grinned. “However the visit was an unofficial friendly meeting, not even Titus knew it took place which might have served in our favor.” Lexa accepted her words with a nod that made sense, Indra was always taking great care so that her connection to Trikru wouldn't be realized by her associates and Titus could hardly keep up with her if he was trying to start a new tribe on top of his regular duties. Roan, though, wasn't so quick to accept Anya's words.

“You're friends with…” He began to growl, undoubtedly about to start a fight about this.

“It's nothing to worry about,” Lexa cut in before Roan could say another word. “Anya and Indra have an understanding. Nobody is asking you to like it.” The _shut the fuck up_ clear in her tone. This really wasn't the time to get into explaining why Indra could be trusted despite the fact that she actively worked on the side of the law.

“But even if Indra's team could somehow find out where the traitors hide out what makes you think that they'll tell us?”

“I don't imagine the'd give it up for free, but Indra wanted us to cut ties with DC for a while if move shop she won't care about small drug bust.”

“Anya..” Lexa couldn't believe she'd do that. Anya could just kill Titus and find the other traitors on her own time but she was going to sacrifice part of her empire based on words Lexa didn't even say out loud.

“This Clarke of yours, she's worth it for you is she not?” Anya challenged, her expression harsh in contrast to the gesture of support she was making.

“Yes.”

“In that case, it's worth it for me.”

“Thank you Anya.” _If we each didn't have a mountain of issues this is where we would hug._ Lexa settled for a nod and a smile which Anya returned.

“Maybe you're not so bad after all.” Roan said in his own way of showing appreciation. Anya narrowed her eyes at him.

“You're already planning to move Azgeda to DC when the dust settles.” She accused, calmly, it was probably true and there was nothing to be done about it.

“Haven't you heard? I'm not Azgeda anymore.” Roan said with a crooked smile. “Besides I don't care to profit out of sacrifices you make for family.”

All he wanted since Lexa met him was to clear his name and get back to Azgeda. It was why he hadn't run, it was why he made a deal with Lexa in the first place. The sudden change of heart was surprising, but as long as he wanted to save Clarke Lexa didn't care where the rest of his allegiances lay.

Lexa also didn't care if the whole of Trikru would crumble to save Clarke, she couldn't let her die. Not like that. Just thinking about the possibility that they were too late, that Titus had already... It was unthinkable. Lexa had to believe that they would save her, she didn't think the world would continue moving if they didn't.

She lost love once. It was devastating but it was always part of the deal. Costia was fighting a war, Costia knew the risks and paid the price. She left Lexa standing at that train station, had kissed Lexa goodbye knowing it was possible that they'd never see each other again and walked away. But if Clarke dies? She would be dying for her kindness, for helping a stranger, for letting Lexa weasel her way into her life with no regard for the girls safety. She would be dying because of Lexa and if Lexa let it happen she really would be the monster that everyone believed her to be. Lexa quietly excused and went to throw up in Anya's bathroom.

Her heart was racing as the images of dead Clarke flooded her mind. Clarke was innocent, good, kind... Clarke couldn't be dead. For the first time in a decade Lexa prayed to a god she didn't even believe in. She felt pathetic she needed to get her shit together and go save Clarke. There would be plenty of time to have a breakdown once the girl was safe.

 

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Clarke sat comfortably at the raggy couch in Ontari's office. She was feeling slightly warmer thanks to the nicotine odored coat she was given an digging through Chinese take out, it was still warm and positively delicious. After one of the guards delivered it to the room Ontari chose one of the boxes and told Clarke to help herself before going back to the desk where she resumed her frowning at a computer screen.

Sharing a meal with the hostage. Was there a chapter about that somewhere in Ontari's textbook on how to cause a Stockholm syndrome in your victim? Clarke wasn't going to comment on it, though. She certainly didn't want Ontari to take the food away or pull the knife out again.

Right now they were good or as good as one could be with the person who kidnapped you and wanted you to kill the girl you were kind of sort of dating.

When Ontari finished her ' _join the dark side'_ pitch, she surprisingly didn't sent Clarke back to the basement. Instead she treated her as a guest of sorts. Freeing her hands, and even had someone fetch the coat she was wearing now, the bad smell and slight dampness were a hell of a lot better than freezing in a sleek dress. Still the slight improvement in her circumstances came with a price, agreeing to do what Ontari wanted was the only way out Clarke could take if she wanted to stay alive and Ontari knew it.

Clarke had no idea who to believe anymore. She wanted Lexa to be the good guy. But the person she thought Lexa was wouldn't do something so horrible as killing her lover to get ahead, never. But who was to say Clarke ever actually knew the real Lexa? Was it possible that everything Clarke learned about Lexa was wrong?

Honestly, the uncertainty was pissing Clarke off. She wasn't like this. She made her decisions and she stuck to them. Not being able to trust her own judgement was not something she enjoyed entertaining.

Clarke stabbed piece of her fried chicken with a chopstick and when it done nothing to relieve the agitation she repeated to stab it until the pieces were to small and mushed to hold together. She wasn't even hungry anymore, still Clarke forced herself to another bite full of rice. Keeping her strength up was important. She was already a prime candidate for pneumonia after the night she had.

She glanced to the door a silhouette of the man standing guard by the other side of the door was still visible through the mat glass of the wall but even if he wasn't there, getting up and making a run for it wouldn't go well for her either. She was tired and unarmed.

Time went on, Ontari paid little attention to her and Clarke curled up on the sofa, her eyes slowly traveling from the other woman to the door and occasionally straying to count the water stains on the sealing, this place was in the state of disorder so big it couldn't possible be long term headquarters.

Maybe an hour passed like that and Clarke started to get inpatient, there were too many questions on her mind to keep quiet any longer. She was about to open her mouth to ask them when a loud voices from the hallway disturbed the silence. Ontari's head shot up to the door, narrowing her eyes at the disturbance. The argument grew louder, and then came a harsh knock on the door.

“Mountain guy is here to see you. Should I take her back?” The man asked.

Ontari smirked at her, “Looks like your time to think on my offer is over Clarke. Cage will demand we kill you, do you want me to tell him there's been a delay but I'm getting the job done or should I fight for you? I need an answer now.”

“I'll do it.” Clarke made up her mind about what to do and she wasn't letting anything change it.

“Do what?” Ontari asked smiling coldly. She apparently wasn't above dragging this out.

“I'll kill Lexa.”

“Smart girl,” Ontari purred. “Let him in.”

Moments later Cage stormed in already ranting as he went. “I don't care if you operate of a _shithole_ but letting me wait in it is…” His voice caught when he saw Clarke. She felt as her heart caught in her throat as his eyes fixed on her, beat of silence passed in which Cage's expression shifted from annoyed to one of to cold fury. “What is this, why is she still alive?” His eyes roamed Clarke's person, searching for any sign she was a prisoner being tortured. “We had a deal!”

Ontari didn't seem bothered by his outburst in the least. “Deal changed,” she shrugged. “Clarke's under my protection for now.” Her voice didn't leave room for argument but Cage either didn't catch the threat or simply didn't care. He turned his back to Clarke to stalked to Ontari's desk and slammed his hands on it, angling towards the sitting woman threateningly.

“Bitch, You think I'm playing I hold up my end of the bargain I'm making you all rich you do as I say you don't get to… “ Clarke's view was partially blocked by Cage now but she sincerely doubted Ontari looked anywhere as scared as Cage wanted her to be. When she spoke her voice was back to the angry enough to stab someone Clarke came to know the night previous.

“Actually I do.” She stood up, casually rounding the table to face off Cage without obstruction. “We are the ones that bailed your sorry ass, and we've been accommodating your moronic requests, making your victims disappear. We lost four people because you can't arrange a proper drop off and a whole shipment because of your arrogance and we're done now. Clarke is alive because I want her alive. You don't get a say.”

“She was going to uncover...”

“You just wanted her dead because she insulted your pride. And we were going to accommodate you until we realized that she was far too valuable to die on your whim. We're done letting you have the illusion that you are in charge here, you work for us. Now where is my next shipment?”

Watching Cage's face go through so many emotions have been highly satisfying it almost made the whole kidnapping thing worth it… He was enraged, confused embarrassed, angry and finally scared…

Good. This is what you deserve you asshole. Who exactly did you think you got involved with? She watched the conversation with some satisfaction. Ontari was scary to face but when she was unleashed on someone else it could be entertaining. As long as she wanted Clarke alive and well she was a useful person to keep around.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

“I knew there was no 'no guns at the house' rule!” Roan commented victoriously as Lexa dragged up the ammunition she hid in Clarke's couch. They were back at the house to pick up more weapons and check on Friday while Anya worked her contacts.

“There was, I just bend it a little.”

“A little?” Roan raised his brow as Lexa lifted the second seat cushion to take out the partially dissembled AWM sniper rifle she had stashed under it.

“Don't tell Clarke.” She insisted. If we get her back...

“It was a stupid rule anyways.” He waved it off after a moment of consideration. Friday was nuzzling to his ankles and he bend down to pet her gently.

Lexa went to pick up the knives she stashed upstairs.

~~~~~~~~

 

“Let's get out of here.” Lexa said as she packed the last of her arsenal to the bag. The riffle couldn’t fit now that Roan put it together so she left it lying by the bag.

“To go where? It's risky and we have nothing to right now.” Roan asked from his seat in the armchair. He had a point, but Lexa didn't like it.

“I don't want to wait here.” She replied when no good excuse came to mind. Admitting something like this to anyone other than Anya would have been unthinkable week ago but things were different now.

“It's really fucked up, isn't it?” Roan said after a moment of silence.

“What is?”

“Life, our way of life… I didn't really realize people like Clarke could exist in it.”

Lexa nodded, she knew exactly what he meant. He was trying to let her know he understood. Not giving her empty reassurance that it would be alright, no lies that she wasn't to blame… just letting her know that he understood.

“Clarke is special.” She agreed and took a seat on the couch next to the bag of weapons.

“The best damn doctor I've ever had.” Roan said in a lighter tone.

“You do know she's not actually a doctor right?” she asked in amusement, she was inclined to agree with him despite the lack of degree on Clarke's part.

Then the front door rattled. Lexa and Roan shared a quick look before jumping to their feet.

Titus knew about Clarke he could've send someone to look for them at her place. Whoever it was was a dead body walking.

“Clarke?” yelled out a woman's voice. “Damn it Griffin would it kill you to answer a phone?” came a second voice, this one unfortunately familiar, Raven.

Lexa managed to signal Roan to hide the gun he was holding just seconds before Clarke's protective friend appeared in the doorway, freezing in her steps. Raven's eyes went from Lexa to Roan to the rifle on the couch, Lexa swore in her head. Standing next to Raven was another girl around the same age, long dark hair, it must've been Clarke's other friend O- something.

“What the fuck is this? Where is Clarke?” Raven demanded.

Lexa for once didn't know what to say but unfortunately Roan took it upon himself to reply first.

“On a hunting trip.” Lexa felt like facepalming.

“What?” Raven asked. Well, at least she looked thrown off by the answer.

“We're meeting her there, going to hunt some game, you can come too if you want.”

“Clarke doesn't hunt.” Raven said angrily. “What did you do to her! I'm calling the police!”

“No, you're not.” Roan growled. Lexa agreed with his sentiment but they couldn't hurt Clarke's friends in any way.

“Wait Raven,” she cut in, making a step to the side to place herself between Roan and the girls a little. “I can explain, please. Clarke's in trouble and we are just trying to help her. I just need…“

“Fuck you! Did you kill her? I told her that you were a lying shit!” Raven yelled. “ And if you come anywhere near me I'll kill you!” She growled at Roan.

“Lexa?” Roan asked, coming closer but waiting for a permission to attack.

“Raven wait, they really are trying to help.” Jumped in the dark haired girl who hadn't said a word before now.

_What?_

“What?” Raven echoed Lexa's sentiment.

“ 'Course we are,” Roan agreed at the same time.

“I'm sorry Raven,” the girl continued. “I wasn't going to tell you but then you called me that you were coming to the house and well... I knew this might happen.”

“What are you talking about O?”

“It's a really small world… Clarke's girlfriend here is being hunted by the people Linc and I are investigating, and apparently they kidnapped Clarke to get to Lexa.”

“You're one of Indra's people?”

“You work private security!” Raven argued, clearly having a hard time understanding what her friend was really saying.

“That's more of a cover, I'm technically still in training... It hasn't been going on long,” she added quickly.

“You lied to us!”

“I…”

“Could we get back to Clarke?” Lexa interjected.

“This is a fucking mess,” Roan complained.

“I know this is going to be a bloodbath but we do all have a common goal for the moment, saving Clarke.” Lexa said, knowing that Raven wasn't going to let it go easily but hopefully she wouldn't stop them from saving Clarke.

 

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Despite Ontari's taunts to Cage Clarke still apparently wasn't a trusted member of their little gang of drug dealers because as soon as he left Clarke was being taken back to the basement. To wait for her chance to prove herself. She didn't have to wait long.

Few hours later she woke to the sound of screaming and gunfire. The sounds were coming through quite muffled but by all accounts all hell was breaking loose on the floor above her head.

She jumped to her feet, moving herself to the wall by the door and waited. Soon the screams grew quieter and less frequent. Clarke held her breath when she heard steps coming towards her cellar. The lock clicked and the door swung open and there was the person she most wanted to see and dreaded at the same time walked in, Lexa.

Lexa was pretty much covered in blood, head to toe, and her eyes were painted with that black color again. She stud in the door staring at Clarke. It was a terrifying sight. And then she opened her mouth and the image shattered.

“Clarke?” She asked so softly so quietly. “It's okay, you're safe now.” She looked like she wanted to come closer, her hands lifting to embrace Clarke but jerking back second later. She seemed terrified of Clarke and relieved to see her at the same time and suddenly Clarke knew that she made the right call. She took the step closer that Lexa has kept herself from making and pulled the girl in a tight hug.

“It's okay,” she whispered. Then Lexa's arms finally wrapped around her as well, her head buried in Clarke's shoulder. Lexa was shaking slightly and holding onto Clarke like she was about to disappear. Clarke was happy to let her, it was a hug they both needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That is it for today guys, thank you ever so much for reading. Leaving a comment on your way out is also always appreciated! 
> 
>  
> 
> (This chapter was going to be more angsty but I couldn't do it to myself after seeing Endgame...)


	15. Taking a Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Saturday guys, enjoy reading!

Clarke's decision to trust Lexa wasn't a difficult one. In truth it was more instinct than anything else, something that couldn't be rationally explained. And she was right, Lexa came for her, hugged her, worried about her well being and it took a long hug followed by multiple reassuring words from Clarke for Lexa to slip back to her all-business-assasin facade. Yet Clarke's decision to trust her was put through another test before they even made it out of the basement.

Lexa stopped them under the staircase, coincidentally on the very same place where Clarke had her conversation with Lincoln only hours ago. Clarke looked at her in confusion.

“Is something wrong, Lex?”

Lexa's voice was all business and sharp edges as she spoke.“I need you to close your eyes before we enter the room upstairs and keep them close until I tell you. ”

“What, why?” Clarke couldn't imagine a reason why she shouldn't see the room again, she had already been there before, besides... “How am I supposed to walk with my eyes closed?”

Lexa sighed. “You'll be holding onto me. I'll lead you out.”

“Why?” Clarke ignored Lexa's irritation, she wasn't the one who was holding them up it was Lexa's weirdasss request and Clarke had enough blindfolding for the week. So Lexa better have a damn good reason. She could see Lexa form a lie and shoot it down as soon as she opened her mouth to say it. Just then Lexa's mask cracked slightly. She looked away from Clarke's eyes as she explained. “I don't want you to see the… mess.”

Clarke thought back to the screams she had heard through the floor. Dead bodies, that's what Lexa didn't want her to see, the people she killed for Clarke...

“It's okay Clarke I won't let you walk into anything.” She added earnestly. Yeah like that was the only issue Clarke could have with all this, but did she really want to see what happened upstairs?

“Please, Clarke?”

Lexa waited patiently as Clarke considered the two options, after a beat Clarke nodded with a sigh. “Just tell me when.” She was too tired to deal with anything she just wanted to go home and take a very long scalding hot shower. There was a flash of relieve on Lexa's face at her agreement as they walked up the stairs. When they reached to top Lexa asked her to close her yes.

It was a strange feeling letting someone lead her around in complete dark, it reminded Clarke of those trust exercises they made them do at camps. She clung to Lexa's hand as they maneuvered through the room, Lexa's voice filled the quiet darkness Clarke was in as she continued to describe where they were and if Clarke was to put one feet before the other or make a turn. Lexa didn't bother keeping quiet which must've meant there was no one left to hide from. Clarke wondered what had happened to Ontari, Titus and Cage and what about Lincoln? Lexa better explain everything once she wasn't busy keeping Clarke from falling down or running into a wall. Then Lexa stopped them abruptly.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing, just something in the doorway here.. Agh, do a big step, Clarke, like you're stepping over a log.”

“Yeah, right.” Clarke held onto Lexa as she did her best not to think about the implications of what she was actually stepping over. Did that log have a family? Why didn't Lexa think she'd be able to handle the sight?

“Aahh little further,” Lexa directed sharply as Clarke tried to step over the obstruction. She could hear the sound of something being kicked out of the way. “Good, right there.”

One foot in place, Clarke shifted her weight to move over her other leg but in that moment a new voice rang from behind them, familiar growly voice. “I'm done with the office, are we torching the basement too?”

Clarke lost her balance in surprise at the sound. Lexa's hands grab onto her firmly to keep her from falling but it was too late. In an instinctive attempt to gain balance Clarke stepped back, landing her foot on something solid but soft and kind of sticky at the same time, simultaneously her eyes flipped open.

Her head followed after the sound so the first thing she saw was Roan. He was wearing his serious expression but for once he doesn't seem too much worse for wear, unlike Lexa there didn't seem to be a single drop of blood on him, he had bullet proof vest stretched on his chest and canister of something in his left hand, and he was completely indifferent to the fact that there was a dead body slumped by the wall next to him, Clarke's gaze shifted to it and then to the blood painted path around the room. The sight before her was something horrific.

Blood everywhere, four dead bodies -no, five, she basically was standing on the last one. Her stomach flip as she looked at the corpse under her feet. Her heel was stuck in an opened wound for Christ sakes.

“Clarke.” Lexa's voice broke through the buzzing in her head, reminding her of the promise she made. She quickly closed her eyes again but it was too late, the image of the room behind them was forever burned into her mind.

Lexa's hands wrapped around her and she somehow lifted Clarke up and spun her away from the body.

“Do the baseman, I'll get Clarke to the car and help you clean up.” Lexa called back to Roan while one of her hands rubbed soothing circles around Clarke's back.

You're leaving me alone in a car? Clarke wanted to ask but that would have been childish and stupid, of course she was getting left in the car, she couldn't even look at the room without getting sick how was she supposed to be useful.

“I'm sorry, Clarke. I really didn't want you to see that.”

“Its okay,” Clarke wasn't sure if she was saying it to convince Lexa or herself. Suddenly she would swear that she could feel the blood stuck on her shoes. Lexa continued to navigate her as well as remind her to keep her eyes closed. Once she even lifted Clarke up again. How many dead people were on the way between the entrance and the basement Clarke was held in? Were they all dead because of her?

“I guess you finally killed someone for me.” The words left Clarke's lips before she could even think about them. Lexa squeezed her hand a bit more tightly but the response that came only moment later was cheerfully teasing. “Ah tonight doesn't count, you can still take your pic... What about the neighbor who called the police on your housewarming party?”

Clarke huffed out a laugh, it wasn't particularly funny but Lexa was trying to lighten the mood and she was happy for the excuse to laugh at something.

~~~~~~~~

When Clarke finally felt the breeze of fresh air on her face and Lexa confirmed that it was okay to open her eyes again Clarke breath a sigh of relief. The heaviness of captivity and danger lifted off her shoulders. She felt like laughing, or maybe crying.

Lexa walked them farther from the entrance and pulled her phone out of her pocket, soon three separate light flashes blinked from the device onto the dark road. Clarke opened her mouth to ask but was interrupted by answering rave of engine from the road before them. Headlights blinked at them and a car slowly approached them.

Clarke looked from Lexa to the car, but the assassin didn't show any worry, whoever was driving that car was someone Lexa knew and trusted then. The car stopped before them. Clarke wondered who it could be, Aiden certainly wasn't old enough to drive. But Lexa could have other friends couldn't she? The shadowy figure on the driver's seat opened the door as soon as the car stopped and ran towards them. Clarke was certain that her eyes were playing tricks on her just then. It surely couldn't have been Raven? But when the person reached them and hugged Clarke so forcefully that it almost knocked her over she had no choice but to believe it.

“Raven?”

“Clarke! I told you, I fucking told you. Why can't you ever listen to me?” Ah yes she would recognize this voice anywhere.

“I'll leave you to it.” Lexa who already untangled herself from Clarke announced and slipped back to the gate they just left.

Clarke looked after her before Raven, not so gently, punched her shoulder. “What were you thinking, harboring a criminal!”

Clarke was happy as well as unbelievably confused to see her, but she definitely wasn't' up to explaining the past week to her not right now. “Can we sit and talk about this… some time later?” She must have looked at least half as bad as she felt because Raven backed down immediately and helped her get in the passenger seat.

“Are you okay? We can ditch them and go to the hospital right now if you want the big bad gangsters can take an Uber.”

“I'm pretty sure ubering from a crime scene is not a good idea.” Speaking of. “How are you here, how did you even find out about any of this?”

Raven nodded compassionately. “I know just how shocked you are I still can't believe this is actually happening… Today has been a lot,” she sighed. “It all started when I got a call from Abby this morning, she was furious with you…”

~~~~~~~~

Clarke was well used to Raven driving like a maniac but the same couldn't be said for Lexa and Roan clinging to their seats for dear life in the backseat. To be fair to them Raven was going to extremes that night in part to relieve stress from the night's events but mostly because of the fact that Roan had scoff at Raven's “Buckle up kids” line as they were driving off from the empty parking lot. Challenging Raven wasn't a good idea on the best of days but right after the stressful day she just had? They would be lucky if Raven didn't drive them straight through the forest. Clarke was certain that they would be flying if the car went any faster.

“You are aware that we have explosive in the back right?” Lexa asked as Raven cut another turn without showing any intention of slowing.

Raven laughed maniacally “That's only a problem if we crash.”

“Yes, that is what I'm saying.” Lexa's comment went ignored this time and Clarke wasn't sure but she almost thought that she heard Roan muttering a prayer.

“Come on Raven it's late...”

“I just want to get you home quickly!” Raven insisted innocently, but did slow down some few minutes later. They were still speeding but at least nobody threw up.

~~~~~~~~

They made it back to Clarke's home and the awkwardness grew when they all gathered in the living room. Raven folded her hands and looked at Lexa and Roan expectantly.

“We did it Clarke is safe you guys can find your way out.”

“They're not going anywhere, Raven,” Clarke sighed.

“We're not?”

But Raven wasn't having it. “You already got kidnapped because you let her stay!”

“I got kidnapped because of my work not Lexa's!” At least that seemed to stop Raven's rant it also had a similar effect of shock and confusion on the others.

“What?” echoed multiple voices.

“It was Cage. I finally know how he avoided bankruptcy,” Clarke announced and before they could ask continued. “But we're not going to deal with any of this until morning. Tomorrow, ten a.m. here. Right now, we're taking a break. One of you will go and make me a cup of hot chocolate I'll go shower and burn these clothes. Then I'm staying right here on this couch, watching dumb comedies and eating empty calories anyone who wants to join me is welcomed. That is what we are doing right now. Any objections?”

None came.

“I'm taking the chocolate duty.” Lexa volunteered with an amused smile before turning on her heel and heading to the kitchen. Roan looked between conflicted Raven and Clarke and shrugged. “Whatever you say, doc.” Clarke nodded and went upstairs without another word. She hoped that Raven would stay but she also really didn't have the strength to fight with her.

She stayed in the shower much longer than necessary, letting the warm water chase away the last bits of cold that had crawled inside her very bones during her stay in the basement. When she finally came down dressed in her pajamas and a back up hoodie since her favorite was probably still in Polis. The scene that awaited her in the living room was something else.

Pillows and blankets from the guest bedroom were all brought down and laid around the sofa creating comfy seating area where roan already took place with his back to the couch he was petting Friday, Lexa was on the couch behind him leaning on the armrest, watching Raven's attempts to set up the movie curiously. Raven was ranting again but this time it was in absolute horror over the lack of pop culture knowledge Lexa and Roan must've shown while Clarke was upstairs.

“At least tell me you've seen Pulp fiction!” she pleaded right before she noticed Clarke's presence. “Clarke, can you believe they never seen Breakfast club? We need to fix this now! Just because you're low life criminals doesn't mean you don't need basic pop culture.”

Wave of protest rose at that but Raven only took delight in it before setting up the first movie on her already growing list and jumping to the empty armchair, leaving one free spot for Clarke to take the spot next to Lexa on her couch, which just so happened to be closest to Raven. She wondered if this arrangement was Lexa's doing but did not dwell on it as she took the seat. Before the opening credits had a chance to finish rolling, cup of hot chocolate was being pushed to her hand by smiling Lexa and simultaneously nearly knocked out of it when Raven threw a blanket at her from the other side.

Clarke looked around her companions, realizing she wasn't the only one with a mug of liquid-happiness. Raven was currently picking up her own from the floor now that she threw the spare blanket and the movie was finally rolling. Roan was holding Friday off from sticking her face in his and Lexa was discreetly toasting Clarke with her own mug. Clarke smiled as she took the first sip, it was perfect, only god new how Lexa managed to keep it in the perfect temperature until now but she did and it was the best hot chocolate Clarke ever had.

“Good enough?” Lexa whispered to her, while Raven excitedly explained to Roan which characters they were rooting for. “It's perfect,” Clarke assured her.

They watched until morning but Clarke couldn't say if anyone besides Raven enjoyed the movies because she was falling in and out of sleep through most of them. Her and Lexa had shared a blanket and sat with their shoulders pressed together for the first movie. But as the night progressed she found herself sleeping pretty much on Lexa before the second movie ended she was fully asleep nesting on her comfortably and if the assassin minded she hasn't said anything.

When Clarke woke up again daylight was already streaming to the room through the open blinds and, but other than that not much has changed while she slept. Candy wrappers and pieces of popcorn were all over the room making Clarke think that she missed at the very least small popcorn fight. She was lying on a big pillow which someone must have brought from her bedroom because Clarke had no memory of it being there when she fell asleep. Lexa was already awake, sitting at the far end of the couch with Clarke's legs thrown over her lap while she read a book. And not just any book, the book Clarke had lying around for months, hoping she could read it but never actually sitting down to do it. Maybe Lexa would tell her if it was worth the effort. Their tastes in books didn’t match completely but it would be interesting to see if Lexa could judge Clarke’s tastes enough to make the recommendation.

Her eyes drifted around the room. Raven wasn't in the armchair anymore but curled up on the pillow littered floor with a thick blanket thrown over her and Friday cuddling right next to her, Roan nowhere in sight. That was a little strange since Friday was usually following after him as he drifted from room to room. Clarke wondered if he went to sleep to the guest room but it was unlikely giving the fact that every single pillow and blanket Clarke owned seemed to be in this room.

Clarke yawned, stretching her arms sleepily. The movie night was a raging success considering that when she suggested it she kind of expected it to end in mayhem. But somehow it hadn’t, her friends put their differences aside to give her the nice relaxing night she wanted and she was incredibly grateful to them. And who knew, maybe the truce would continue to last. Clarke wanted her friends to get along and really they all weren't that different in the end of the day.

She didn't know how Lexa and Roan fit into her life now that it was hopefully all over (No, she wasn't going to think about the fact that Cage and the others might still be alive and causing problems, thanks for asking.) It was ridiculous to imagine that they would all be roommates from now on and it would probably lead to her house burning down anyway. But Clarke didn't want them to disappear from her life, especially Lexa. She was even growing fond of the idea of having a cat, maybe Lexa and her could get a cat if Roan was going to leave with Friday. Clarke's thoughts wandered. Lexa noticed that she was awake again and smiled warmly at her, Clarke smiled back and Lexa went back to reading, giving Clarke her space to wake up properly. It felt right, domestic, Maybe Lexa wanted to stay too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's that for today, thank you so much for reading, feel free to leave me a comment, I love hearing from you guys. 
> 
> (Side note, finals are here and completely exhausting... so the regularity of updates might suffer this month. )


	16. Meet the Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand we're back, happy Saturday everyone!

Lexa couldn't believe her luck. Literally, she couldn't let herself trust that things could last in the same peaceful and easy manner they did after the raid. Clarke seen her covered in blood, head to toe hell and she trusted Lexa to lead her out of the carnage without looking but then she caught a glance on the main room where Lexa didn't leave a soul alive and the look of horror and sickness on Clarke's face in that moment wouldn't be leaving Lexa's mind for a while. Lexa wouldn't forgive herself for it. There was no excuse for what Clarke had seen. Lexa screwed up she let herself loose on those who betrayed their people and endangered Clarke. She didn't realize that Clarke would see the leftovers of her going berserk until she was with Clarke again, seeing the girl safe and in one piece was like flipping a switch in Lexa, she suddenly realized what she must look like to the girl and that Clarke would finally see the monster she really was the creature she should be afraid off.

Except Clarke didn't back away, shockingly she stepped forward and hugged Lexa close and if Lexa had tears in her eyes when that happened it was nobody's business. And Clarke continued to treat Lexa with disturbing normalcy for the rest of the night. Which lead Lexa to be extremely anxious waiting for the other shoe to drop. It must have been in shock, and soon enough it would wear off and Lexa would probably be getting turned in to the cops or at the very least asked to disappear from Clarke's life for good.

Honestly Clarke's insistence on not dealing with anything for the rest of the night was much more understandable than her willingness to have Lexa around. When she suggested- no demanded, that they leave things for the morning Lexa didn't have the heart to deny her. Which forced her to change their original plans to stay with Clarke. She was a little surprised that Roan agreed to it without protest, it must've been the Clarke effect, making him soft. But Lexa didn't point it out since it would have been incredibly hypocritical.

Luckily, Clarke's shower took well over forty five minutes, giving Lexa more than enough time to call Anya, get her to sign off on the change of plans, clean off the blood and change, get into an argument with Raven and finish the hot chocolate just in time for Clarke to come down and see them all appear like normal people, friends even, about to have a movie night. Which was amazing.

Lexa never really experienced a movie night in any capacity before that night but when it happened she appreciated it for the soft distraction that it was. As well as an excuse to cuddle Clarke on a couch. Even though Clarke fell asleep almost immediately the very fact that she still felt comfortable falling asleep on Lexa was staggering.

As the morning came and Roan sneaked out to rally the troops, Lexa could no longer ignore the fact that the entire night was fake. Clarke was in shock and too tired to talk or even really think about everything that happened. Soon she would demand answers and once Lexa could guarantee her safety from both Trikru and Azgeda she would certainly demand Lexa to make good on her promise to leave from her life. And even if Clarke somehow didn't as her to leave, Raven would probably do it for her… or kill Lexa herself. Lexa didn't consider Raven a threat when she first met the woman, but after last night she knew that Raven actually would go up against the professional contractor without hesitation.

So here she was, in a temporary cozy bubble of domestic happiness that was about to burst. Lexa didn't believe in God or some higher power, however if she did, she would be thanking it right then and there for letting her have that one night of normalcy before things went back to being shit. Clarke was awake now and the time was running again, Lexa had to face the music explain and face the consequences. Let Clarke pull away from her for good this time and she would accept the heartbreak with a fake smile because she didn't want Clarke to feel guilty for doing the reasonable thing.

~~~oOoOo~~~

 

Clarke couldn't resist the temptation of having another long, hot shower when she finally forced herself off the couch. She could foresee many baths in her future as well but she could hardly take the time for that now, not with Raven and Lexa alone in the same room together. Granted Raven was still asleep when Clarke left, but that could change at any time. Knowing that Raven was not a morning person Clarke assumed that that situation could turn to bloodshed fairly quickly.

The shower left her feeling much better. Clarke was ready to take on the day. She changed into her work pantsuit and was ready to go back downstairs when her eyes fell to the dresser. She wondered if the knife was still there, she had every intention of giving it back to Lexa once she was certain that she wouldn't use it to stab her and then she forgot about it. Now it was burning a hole through her mind, a thought too worrisome to ignore. She had to check if her suspicions have been right, she walked over and pulled the bottom drawer open. The knife was still under her wool sweater, just where she left it last week. God had it really only been a week? The flowery pattern on the handle was scarily familiar, it was a twin to the knife Ontari had. The knife Ontari wanted to use to slit Lexa's throat. “She left her there, alone to die.” The words echoed in Clarke's mind. The emotion behind Ontari's words was so raw, how could someone lie like that? Clarke wanted it to be a lie so badly but someone possibly to fake _that_?

Yet, Lexa didn't leave _her._  She came to save Clarke, she made cocoa and listened to Raven narrating the movie patiently. There was no way that the Lexa who did all those things would be capable of something like that, right? Then the image of all the bodies and Lexa's face covered in blood spatter came to mind. Could that person do something like that? Clarke shuddered at the thought. A voice came from the doorway, nearly making her jump out of her skin.

“Roan will be back so, we should wake Raven.” Lexa was standing in the doorframe, smiling until her eyes landed on the knife in Clarke's hands. Then the she froze, the smile vanishing.

Clarke flinched. Guiltily flipping the knife in her hands. “I forgot I had this, I mean I hid it back when I thought you were out of your mind but then I forgot about it.” She explained awkwardly. Lexa didn't seem to be listening to her anyway, as she stalked closer, her eyes fixed on the object in Clarke's hands.

“I thought it was gone,” she whispered reaching for it. However Clarke didn't hand it over just yet, unconsciously tightening her grip on the handle and moving it closer to her chest.

“Who's Costia?”

Lexa's hand froze looming over Clarke's, her eyes jumped up to her face. She looked shocked with a hint of something else, could it be fear? Clarke never seen such expression on the girl before and immediately regretted bringing the name so quickly, but there was no taking it back now.

“What? Where did you?”

“Ontari.” Clarke breathed the name out watching for Lexa's reaction carefully. Unsurprisingly Lexa did the same thing she always pulled when things got serious, barricading herself behind the expressionless mask. This time she even took a physical step back from Clarke. “She made me have a chat with her, she really hates you by the way. Did you know that she happens to have this exact same knife… ” Clarke continued casually, pretending that the air between them wasn't heavy with tension and Lexa wasn't preparing herself to bolt or maybe launch at Clarke.

“What did she tell you?”

“That you killed her sister… and that you would do the same to me.”

“I would never hurt you Clarke, I swear. I-”

“I know.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I don't know if I can trust everything you say or do and I have no idea what you want with me, but I know you're not as cold and merciless as you want the world to believe. But what Ontari said… I need to hear it from you, I can't just pretend it didn't happen Lex.”

“You deserve to know.” Lexa nodded, looking away with a sigh. She moved further away from Clarke as she spoke, crossing to sit at the edge of the bed. “Ontari is right to blame me for what happened. I let it happen, I could've stopped... It was my fault, she died because I was weak.” Lexa whispered the last part, she spoke almost emotionless but Clarke could almost feel the waves of sadness radiating from her.

“You loved her,” she said gently when Lexa didn't continue. She wanted to come closer and reach out to Lexa but wasn't sure if her touch would be welcomed in that moment.

“I did.” Lexa nodded. “That was the weakness.”

“Lexa,..”she wasn't sure what she was about to say, Lexa continued talking before the words ever came.

“And now I almost got you killed too.”

“This really wasn't your fault Lexa.” She sighed inching closer to the bed. “What happened with Costia?” Clarke pressed on. She understood how hard it was for Lexa but they really needed to talk about it. Unfortunately, before Lexa could answer a shout came from downstairs, effectively shattering the moment.

“Clarkey! Get off your girlfriend and get down here!”

“Octavia?” Clarke said the name, raising her brows in surprise.

“They're here for the meeting.” Lexa provided helpfully. Already on her way to leave the room and the uncomfortable conversation behind.

“We should finish this later.” Clarke called after her. She suspected that Lexa would do her best to hold off “later” as long as possible and then some. The knife was still in her hand and she didn't really think about it before shoving the folded blade into the pocket of her pants.

Clarke didn't exactly have any expectations from the vague plan of “the morning meeting” when she suggested it. She pictured something along the lines of Lexa and Roan finally telling her what the hell they were doing and how it connected to her kidnaping and Cage, over a cup of coffee just like the days before except maybe with Raven present and swearing the whole time. What she truly didn't expect, was Octavia coming in with Lincoln and right after them entering Roan with an incredibly intimidating woman who made a beeline for Clarke and immediately crushed her hand in a vice like grip.

“So you're the Clarke.” Said the woman, eyeing her like she was already putting her on the list of her mortal enemies. That woman looked like someone who'd keep a list like that.

“Anya,” came Lexa's warning voice before Clarke could form a reply.

“I'm just checking my investment” said the woman, letting go of Clarke's hand slowly, but her tone lightened some, when she spoke to Lexa.

Lexa rolled her eyes, “Anya's my friend… don't listen to anything she says.”

“Anya is also the head of Trikru, Lexa's boss and the person of interest in half a dozen active investigations.” Octavia added helpfully.

Anya smirked at that but didn't add anything to Octavia's description.

“She's not my boss, I'm an independent contractor.” Lexa corrected in a tired voice.

“Seriously, you only ever do jobs for Trikru… how is that independent?” Octavia pressed further. She looked like she was enjoying herself incredibly.

“Like I would tell you anything about my job.” Lexa shot back coldly, but Octavia's cheerfulness didn't falter.

“I had to try,” she shrugged. That reminded Clarke, how incredibly complicated the situation actually was.

“You're not arresting Lexa here right?” Clarke asked her eyes jumping from Octavia to Lexa in concern. Was Lexa in trouble for helping Clarke?

“Don't worry. This meeting never happened, just like we have no idea what happened at the factory you were being held captive last night because we had called in our inside man for an emergency.”

“Speaking of, Indra is pissed about the fire. You never said you were going to burn it to the ground.” Lincoln added.

“What fire?” Lexa asked in mock confusion. “I didn't see any fire, did you see any fire Roan?”

“Nope, we were just taking a walk, enjoying the night sky when we ran into Clarke and Raven.”

“Exactly, they were nice enough to give us a lift home and then we all had a movienight.”

“And hot chocolate.”

“I think we liked it better when you two hated each other,” Octavia sighed.

“It's way too early for this.” Raven groaned as she emerged from the kitchen with a cup of coffee and sleep ruffled hair. The picture of sleepy misery.

“Actually we need to get a move on, I need to be at work in two hours and I don't want to be stuck in traffic…” Clarke announced. Unfortunately, that seemed to unify everyone against her.

“Work?”

“Are you kidding me, you just want to go to work like nothing happened?”

“It's still too dangerous.”

The litany of voices came over each other.

“I have to, we're supposed to sign a contract with MountWeather today and I can't let it happen with the whole sending a professional killer to kill me… “

“What?” Raven choked, echoing the surprise others seemed to be experiencing as well.

Clarke sighed, how the hell was she the one needing to explain things first?

~~~

Since the kitchen wasn't big enough for everyone to fit inside, the group settled on talking in the living room where a few extra chairs were brought in so no one had to sit on the floor. Clarke almost wished she could drink something stronger than coffee as she explained how her suspicions of Cage lead to the fake threat she made and all she learned during her kidnaping. Well with the exception of her second talk to Ontari which she really hoped to avoid discussing with so many people present..

“What about Ontari?” Thanks a fucking ton, Lincoln. “Why did she keep you so long in her office?”

“Just a scare tactic.” Clarke played it off a little too quickly. “So what happened to Ontari is she…”

“She's alive, must've left after Lincoln, getting to her now might be a problem.” Lexa replied apologetically. Like she felt guilty Ontari was still out there.

“I'll find her.” Roan huffed resolutely, only to be met with Anya's unimpressed rejection of his suggestion.

“You still have a bounty on your head. Unlike Lexa who is almost in the clear, we're spreading the word that she's no longer a target but until your mother actually retracts the price on you should lay low.”

“Lexa's in the clear?” Clarke jumped in, unable to hold back the question, when did that happen, did it mean she was leaving for good now?

“Yes, the man who kidnapped you, Titus, set her up and had some of our own people hunting her, using our resources, however that is all over now.” Clarke looked from Anya to Lexa who have been quiet for a while.

“Titus won't give you any more trouble, but we need to keep you safe until this Cage and whoever he's working for are taken care off.”

So she killed Titus? Clarke didn't feel any remorse if he really was dead but if keeping her safe meant hiding in another wine cellar Clarke wasn't having it.

“I'm going in to work today.”

“That's really not keeping you safe, Clarke,” Lexa protested.

Octavia cleared her throat pointedly.

“Hate to jump into a lovers spat… But you are not just killing Cage Wallace to make things safe. Your deal with Indra was for the factory and saving Clarke, we still have a case here.”

“Case?” Lexa spat out like it was something dirty. “You mean your little investigation that got you nowhere and your friend kidnapped?”

“She was kidnapped while on a date with you so how exactly are you any better than us?”

Lexa looked ready to launch at her, so Clarke gripped her arm. Octavia bringing up the gala suddenly reminded her a vital part of the evening.

“What happened to my phone?” Clarke interrupted the argument. Everyone turned to stare at her in confusion over the sudden change of subject. “I'm not sure if I had it when Titus grabbed me…”

“I have it.” Lexa said, and just then Clarke could kiss her.

“Can you get it?” she asked, trying not to let herself get excited as Lexa went to fetch it. It probably wasn't going to work.

“Clarke what is...” Octavia started and Clarke cut her off, suddenly too energized to stay sitting she got up to pace as she spoke.

“Nobody here is killing Cage, Mount Weather needs to own up to what they did first...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long waits guys, I'm having trouble keeping up with everything.. May we all survive finals and everything else this time of year throws at people. 
> 
> PS: Comments are still greatly appreciated even if I'm taking forever to reply.


	17. Cage

Clarke strolled into the lobby of Griffin industries with a gloomy Lexa in tow, she stopped by the reception desk making sure that Cage and his people would be lead directly to meeting room (and watched the whole time). Lexa got a few odd looks most likely on the count of her “kneel before me or die” aura, fortunately nobody was brave or stupid enough to actually questioned her presence out loud. So there she was, Clarke's personal, slightly frightening shadow following her to her office where they would wait for the others.

When they got to Clarke's floor and Lexa scared some poor intern who almost ran into them with the mail cart Clarke felt like it was time to ask. She spoke up as soon as she closed the door of her office room behind them.

“Okay, what's got you all riled up, I thought this was going to be exactly your element. False pretenses, corporate espionage, hacking, blackmail…”

“I don't like this plan Clarke.”

“You said it would work.” Clarke pointed out as she slid into her chair, making herself comfortable. She didn't like the office work much but there was something nice about having her own office with a huge wall sized window at her disposal and being here made her feel good, more in control. She really didn't want Lexa to realize she was also nervous about the plan.

“Doesn't mean I like it.” Lexa mumbled. She didn't sit down opting to survey the street below through the window instead. Clarke spun in her chair to keep view of her as Lexa paced by the window.

Lexa was wearing the tux she had on at the gala, only missing the bowtie. She looked amazing although perhaps a little overdressed for her part of Clarke's girlfriend who arranges flowers for a living. But they had little options mostly because of the severe lack of formal clothing, apparently most of Lexa's clothes have burned down with her apartment. Clarke wanted to offer her clothes but she doesn't want to force her especially since this was Lexa if she wanted Clarke's clothes she would've just raided her closet and be done with it, it wasn't like she ever asked for permission before.

“You're just sulking because we're not letting you kill Cage.” Clarke pointed out smiling, why was Lexa's bad mood about not getting to murder someone endearing? That was bad. Murder is bad. Clarke should probably discuss these things with a therapist.

“I'm not sulking.”

“Of course you're not, babe.”

Lexa looked up at the nickname and Clarke stumbled over her words to remedy that slip of tongue. “You're here as my girlfriend, we should act the part...” Yeah in my private office, where nobody can see, nice one Clarke.

Lexa smirked, gentleness replaced with mischief. “Well, sweetie, what did you have in mind?” She stalked to Clarke's desk and leaned close enough to whisper in her ear, close enough for Clarke to feel her breath. “Do you want your mother to catch us making out in your office?”

Clarke had a comeback prepared on the tip of her tongue, but then Lexa started to pull back, their eyes met briefly before Clarke looked at her lips and the reason went out of the window. As did the fact that they didn't even close the door. She pulled Lexa back to her, next thing she knew she had a lap full of Lexa, kissing her senseless.

It was just as overwhelming and as the handful of other times they kissed more so because in this instance she had Lexa's weight on top of her and two hands free to roam. Why hadn't the done this sooner? How could she waste so much time in close proximity to Lexa without it was a mystery Clarke could only spare a distant thought to because most of her brain was fully occupied running wild on the warm feeling of Lexa and having her tongue explore the inside of the other's mouth. Lexa whimpered into the kiss which was possibly the hottest sound Clarke ever heard, unfortunately that was also when the most annoying sound on the planet shattered the moment.

“Clarke!”

Abby Griffin had a patent on saying Clarke's name like a swearword and describing a nuisance at the same time. “In the office, have you no shame? Can't you behave for at least a day!”

“Sorry, Abby! This was entirely my fault, I don't know what came over me.” Lexa apologized, but took her sweet time exiting from Clarke's lap. Clarke took a second to collect herself.

Clarke counted to ten in her head partially so she wouldn't snap back at her mother and also to cool come down from the high she got from getting so up close and personal with Lexa.

“Yes, well today really isn't a good day for a tour Lexa, there's so much to do after my absence last week, and the Mount Weather deal is today... and I still have a few things to say about the stunt you two pooled over the weekend, taking off like that. Do you have any idea how rude that was, not to mention it scared us, you didn't even let us know you were leaving, why do you do this to us Clarke. I had to have Raven check on you! To know if you even made it home alive, why can't you ever answer your phone, Clarke?”

“Abby, It was entirely my fault, you see I had a...” Lexa was sweet trying to take the fall, Clarke loved her, she knew it just then, she knew it for a while. She also knew what to say to Abby just then.

“I quit.”

Clarke's announcement cut through Lexa's convoluted story about why they left without explanation or saying good bye shocking Abby and Lexa both.

“What?”

“I'll make a formal notice by tomorrow, so all angles are covered, I'll stay for the standard month and see things through on the Mount Weather deal, but I'm done with this.”

“You can't quit!” Abby argued glancing from Clarke to Lexa and back again as if waiting for the punchline of a very bad joke to drop.

“Mom, I can and I am.” Clarke assured her although her words didn't seem to be registering. “I never wanted this fucking job in the first place.”

“Oh, so it's my fault for bailing you out when you dropped out of everything you tried before?” Abby jumped at the chance to guilt trip Clarke as soon as it was presented. “You need to grow up Clarke you can't run from your responsibilities!”

“I'm miserable here!”

“Clarke, you don't know what you're saying you're-” Abby didn't get to finish what exactly Clarke was because at that point Lexa, who until then stayed at the neutral ground, apparently had enough.

“This is Clarke's decision to make you can't make it for her.” Abby must've forgotten that Lexa was even there because she was now staring at the assassin as if she grew another head. Abby Griffin speechless. Maybe Clarke could actually come out of this fight on top… Which was the exact moment Clarke's phone had to vibrate in her pocket and remind her that she didn't have that luxury.

“Fuck I shouldn’t have started this now,” she mumbled, quickly glancing at the message.

“So you're not quitting... Clarke are you trying to give me a stroke?”

“Oh, I'm still quitting, but we have more important things to discuss at the moment and I can't make this about me.” Abby tried to argue some more on the topic but Clarke wasn't having it.

“I'm sorry mom, I'm sorry for yelling and springing the news on you like this. Later we can sit down with dad and really talk about this… Right now we need to put all of this aside for the good of the family because I have something much more important to talk about than my inability to hold down a job.”

Well, at least she stopped yelling. Lexa squeezed her hand reassuringly, Clarke pressed back. The talk wasn't going exactly according to the plan but hopefully Abby would listen to her for once in her life, if she had enough people baking her up.

~~~oOoOo~~~

Lexa had to stay out of the first meeting, with Clarke's family and she wasn't sure whether to be grateful or annoyed by it. Hour and a half was left before the meeting with Cage, they were cutting it close. She was also having a hard time comprehending that Clarke actually quit. Sure a blind person could see that Clarke hated her job, but Lexa still hadn't expect her to up and quit just like that, it was- Come to think of it it was actually so Clarke. The girl who would take in a stray assassin and a gangbanger and provide them with a medical aid she wasn't even fully trained to give within a moments notice. Clarke was incredible. Lexa caught herself smiling fondly and had to fight to regain her stoic expression back. It was hard to keep her lips from twitching, just thinking the girls name.

She let her mind go to less pleasant things. Like the fact that Titus still had to die. He was currently “resting” in a secluded basement, he still had a lot to answer for before Lexa would be allowed to kill him, of course that would be a messy matter.

Finally she spotted the familiar short figure entering the reception hall. She waited till Aden's eyes reached her before she nodded in greeting. Aden beamed back and almost ran to her. She pulled him into a hug. She had been worried about the kid this week, Anya was the only one who knew about him but she could never be entirely sure.

“Thank you for coming.”

“Anytime, are we meeting Clarke? I've heard you two are dating now…” Aden was clearly excited over the notion and he was  grinning at her knowingly.

“How did you hear that?“

“Anya called, I didn't tell her anything though…” he added quickly, obviously worried Lexa would think he wen against her wishes.

“You did well,” she cut him off and peter his shoulder to make it clear they were good. Aden relaxed again.

“I told you, you could trust Anya.” There it was, Aden could be a real smart-ass about being right on occasion, he'd be lording this over Lexa for years.

Lexa took one of the heavy computer bags from him, ignoring his comment, “Come on now, we should get you to the others.”

~~~oOoOo~~~ 

Out of all the crazy things Clarke lived through since she met Lexa the look on Cage's face when he saw her in the conference room was one of her favorites. She could swear she seen how his life flashed before his eyes in that moment, then the uncertainty, the calculating consideration of whether she was on his side now, was he stupid enough to buy it?

How little he knew, Clarke's presence was actually far from his biggest problem.

“Cage nice of you to join us and you have your lawyers present, perfect. Let me do the introductions. You already know my parents of course: Mr and Mrs Jake and Abby Griffin. You also might remember Ms Harper McIntyre our lawyer.” Clarke went on doing her best to remain polite, professional and keep her maniacal grin to the minimum as she got to the other people at the table. However you might not be familiar with my uncle Steve Griffin our expert consultant. We wouldn't want there to be any misunderstanding in our business would we.”

“Shall we get to the contract?”

Clarke could see the way Cage's eyes ticked around the room, he was suspicious and ready to bolt, she gave him a wink. “I think we both know it's in our best interest as well as our mutual friend, no?” _Would you rather have Ontari kick your ass?_ Being the underlying message Clarke hoped to deliver. At least some of it must've translate because Cage nodded slowly, letting the lawyers get to going over the details of the contract Month Weather and Griffin industries were passing along for months.

~~~oOoOo~~~

Only a one room over the a group of unlikely allies was huddled around conference desk. Aden was typing away on his personal laptop, while Lexa, Raven, Indra and Lincoln were watching two separate windows on the second computer. One window was a direct transmission of what was going on in the war room A while the other was slightly illegal highjacking of FBI communications, more concretely Octavia's current mission feed. Although some could argue that Indra and Lincoln were in their rights to that information far too many rules and protocols had to over looked to make this particular part of the operation legitimate. Which was why it would not come up in any of the official reports later on.

Lexa knew and looked out for Aden ever since she was hired to kill a hacker who was using his skills to bring chaos into a life of one particular sleazy but highly standing real estate tycoon. Documents leaked, shady dealings exposed, pictures of said billionaire doing drugs and cheating on his wife… all of the usual shebang. Unfortunately said man wasn't nice enough to let the law handle the matter, instead he paid his own hackers to trace the attacks as closely as they could and then Lexa was given a lot of money and an IP address to start her hunt from. She found her target pretty quickly but like hell was she killing a twelve-year-old kid. However the tycoon didn't share her philosophy and was apparently more than willing to higher someone who could “get the job done”... suffices to say he didn't hire anyone else after that ever again. And Lexa found herself looking out for the kid and doing her best to keep him out of trouble. Which was why she wasn't too happy about dragging him into this mess.

So although Lexa begrudgingly agreed to let him help she also insisted on keeping his name from the suits, he was introduced to the rest of the group as “The Kid - our tech support.” Aden only protested a little to the nickname but proceed to have a pretty good chat with Raven as they worked on setting up everything Clarke needed.

They watched Clarke make the introductions and lead the final reading of the contract as the lawyers hashed out the details. Lexa had been worried that Cage surely wasn't going to just go through with the deal after they burned out his warehouse but Clarke assured her that was the very reason he needed to tie himself to Griffin industries now and use their resources to make up the losses and get on his feet.

Clarke was getting looks from her parents if anyone was going to blow the plan it was them.

 ~~~oOoOo~~~

 They all signed the contract, copies were safely put away by entrusted lawyers. Just then Clarke pointed out that the deal wouldn't be legally binding until Cage transferred the first payment to their account. “We all know you're good for the money, but we still wouldn't want any misunderstandings about confidentiality would we?” Cage gave her a condescending smirk and had one of his men transfer the money right then, raising to the bait just as eagerly as Clarke expected.

Then Clarke proposed a toast with a twenty year old single malt scotch and took great care to pour everyone's drink with slowness of an D.M.V. employee. Uncle Steve excused himself to make a phone call. Glasses clinked, congratulations were exchanged and then Indra and Lincoln walked in without knocking.”

“Cage Wallace? You are under arrest for fraud, drug manufacturing, drug trafficking, manslaughter, and arson.”

“What the fuck?”

“Our client is not talking to you, whatever evidence can you possibly…”

“Oh we don't need him to say anything. We had a court order to search his labs fifteen minutes ago. We found the people he kept chained up in his “private lab” and we even have the bodies. Your client doesn't need to say anything and will still rot in jail for the rest of his life.”

Cages face whitens. “You can't that's not possible…”

“Find your little torture room? We got an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen.” Lincoln explained.

“You fucking-”

“I suppose this is the part for the other bad news?” Clarke interrupted moving around the table to stand next to Indra. “Harper?”

“Yes, Clarke.” Harper passed a paper to Cage and his people. “You're now in violation of the clause of conduct we will be suing you for breach of contract and fraud since you clearly gave false information regarding the state of your company.”

Cage's lawyers tried to put up a fight as Lincoln went to cuff their client and read him his rights even though they obviously already knew the fight was futile. Something in Cage must've snapped, he headbutted surprised Lincoln and wrapped one hand around Clarke's neck and pressed something metallic and round to her head with the other. Where the fuck did he get a gun?

“Anyone moves a muscle and this bitch is dead!”

Indra already had her gun drawn, Linc was seconds away from jumping Cage but everyone froze. It was a small room but Clarke was struggling to breath through the hold Cage had on her as he backed them to the corner using Clarke as a human shield. Chorus of upset voices were screaming at Cage to let her go, drop the gun, give it up...

Clarke wasn't scared, she was strangely calm. He was never going to make it out of the building but he was too much of a psychopath to let her go. He would kill her. She didn't have a good angle to punch him… she was getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen. Her hands dropped from trying to loosen cage's grip it was fruitless she needed to.. Then she felt the object she had in her pocket from that morning, her saving grace. People were shouting, Cage was making demands, it felt like the whole world was underwater and Clarke was the only one moving. It was a work of seconds and somehow it took a lifetime: grip the knife, flip the blade, find his neck, not hard at all since he was covering so close to Clarke's own head, coward, she slashed blindly and made a break for it. The gun went off.

~~~oOoOo~~~ 

Lexa watched Cage jump Clarke helplessly. She knew she should've been in the room. Lexa ran gun in her hand, he was dead, she wouldn't let anything happen to Clarke, Clarke was going to be fine and Cage's insides were going to be used to paint the walls. She could see the whole mess clearly as soon as she got to the conference room the glass wall left nothing to the imagination she aimed the gun, she needed a clean shot and… then Clarke's hand shot up and in a clear motion slashed Cages neck she got the artery on her first try, blood spilled everywhere at the same time as something went through the glass door and directly at Lexa.

The assassin hardly noticed the sharp pain in her already injured arm as the bullet meet her flesh she was already running to get Clarke.

Lincoln And Indra went to assist Cage but it was pointless, he twitched around some but only god could save him at that point. Lexa didn't care she moved to where Clarke was being smothered between her parents' arms. Lexa couldn't really get to her because of them but as soon as she said Clarke's name the girl extricated herself from her worried parents and hugged Lexa tightly. One side of Clarke's face was covered in blood, fortunately none of it her own.

Lexa didn't believe in god or higher powers but just then she felt like she should thank the universe or something for not taking Clarke away from her just yet.


	18. Just a Scratch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Better late than never right?

“I'm not a doctor! I told you this! Why do you keep making me do this stuff?! I'll pay for the E.R. myself if you just said something sooner…”

“It's just a graze, Clarke,” Lexa defended petulantly. Clarke wasn't having any of it.

“You could get an infection, blood poisoning, you just kept on bleeding while I talked to the police Lexa!”

“It was  barely bleeding, it's a scratch at best!”

“Lexa!”

“Well, excuse me for not wanting to explain why I have an unregistered firearm and half a dozen knives on me to the cops. A tactical retreat was for the best Clarke you what would you want me to do… ”

“Are they always like this?” Aden turned to Roan as the two women continued to bicker. It was just the four of them in Clarke's living room and Aden was shifting his attention between the fascinating way Lexa interacted with Clarke and the kitty perched on the armrest of Roan's chair.

“Pretty much, sometimes they shut up and cuddle.” Roan confirmed with an eye roll. He already liked the kid better than the rest of Lexa and Clarke's friends and he only knew him for five minutes, it spoke to how low the bar was set. Apparently the brilliant idea to let the law take care of Cage didn't work out so well. Aden briefed Roan on how the operation went down and off the rails, the girls becoming too distracted by each other as soon as they got in and Lexa revealed her bloodied sleeve, to do it themselves.

Surprisingly most of the plan actually worked, it only became slightly more bloody by the end. He could actually see some of the blood since Clarke didn't bother changing before frantically cleaning Lexa's scratch. It was taking her almost longer than that time she had to remove a shards of glass from half his face, maybe because she was constantly stopping her work to chide Lexa for not speaking up sooner. She was obviously struggling on a verge of some kind of breakdown which had little to do with the scratch on Lexa's arm. Roan really wasn't used to dealing with shit like that, his method for women falling into hysterics was walking away and letting someone else to deal with it.

“Why don't me and the kid order some food while you two go clean up.” Roan suggested in hopes that the girls will go upstairs and fuck the argument out of their system. Clarke frowned at him but with a nudge and assurance that she was fine from Lexa she let herself be lead upstairs.

“Emh, so does the cat have a name?” Aden asked somewhat nervously after a moment of silence.

“Friday.”

“Can I?”

“That's up to her, kid.”

“Aden.”

“How come they didn't drop you off on the way home?”

“To help you.” Aden wasn't looking at Roan as he spoke, instead he was carefully inching his hand closer to Friday, watching for any signs she might be against the idea of being petted.

“What do you mean-”

“You said we're getting food, can we get burgers? I'm like, starving.” Aden asked, eyes shining. Friday just nudged her head to his hand and the kid was clearly ecstatic over it. That was certainly a point in his favor in Roan's book.

“Whatever, how exactly are you going to help me?”

“Clear your name, help you get back the money Ontari stole from your mom who is now like trying to kill you and stuff... I mean that really sucks. Like, my foster family would probably try to kill me too over way less money going missing, but at least they're my actual relatives, you know?”

Aden finally stopped rambling when he noticed the death glare Roan was giving him.

“Sorry.”

Roan didn't bother commenting Aden's words. He got up. “Let's go.”

“What, where? I'm tech support, I'm not going to help you kill anyone physically…”

“For the food, kid. They're gonna need a while up there and you probably shouldn't be down here if it gets loud.”

“Aren't they just changing clothes?”

Roan shook his head. “I'm not going into this with you without booze, get your stuff, you can tell me how you're going to solve all my problems in the car since you seem to be unfamiliar with what silence is.”

“Aren't they going to wonder where we are?” Aden asked when the front door closed behind them. “They won't even notice.”

~~~oOoOo~~~

Clarke couldn't believe how stupid Lexa was being. She walked around with a wounded arm like it was no big deal and Clarke was the crazy one, for insisting she'll get stitches in the hospital like a normal person.

“I'm okay, Clarke. Wash off, everything is fine,” Lexa insisted. They were upstairs in Clarke's bedroom and some part of Clarke knew that Lexa was right and she could just go and wash off the residue blood from her face and hair but she couldn't make herself move to the bathroom, or let go of Lexa's hand.

“Are you sure there's no other injuries you didn't think to tell me about?”

“No Clarke, this was the only one.”

“We should put a balm on the older scars…”

“You've already changed the bandages on everything.” Lexa reminded her. “I'm fine.”

“What about-”

“Are you alright, Clarke ?”

“What?”

“You killed someone,” Lexa said softly. “ I didn't stop shaking for days after I first killed someone.”

Clarke dropped her yes to the floor. That was the problem wasn't it?

“Clarke.”

“I don't feel bad, Lexa. I didn't care that I killed him, I felt nothing. But then I found out he shot you and I… What if he killed you? If that bullet went in a slightly different angle… I don't know what I would do if I lost you Lexa! And you act like it's nothing, because to you it is. I get it, you're a contract killer, risking your life is no big deal, it could happen at anytime… you just don't care and I don't...” Clarke's voice broke, when did she start crying?

Lexa pulled her into her arms, letting Clarke bury her face into Lexa's shoulder. “I'm sorry, Clarke. I didn't realize. I swear, I'm not going to die on you.”

“Maybe you won't die but you'll leave. Everyone always leaves…” the words she dared to whisper into Lexa's shoulder, she couldn't look at her. Lexa must have heard her anyway because she forced Clarke to pull back and look at her. She looked like she wanted to say something, more empty promises. Clarke didn't want to hear it and opted to kiss her desperately instead. She didn't really know why she needed Lexa so much and neither did she know what was going to happen to them now that everything was over, all she knew was that she needed Lexa. She wanted to touch her, hold her, feel her, needing the assurance that she was alive and not alone.

~~~~

The sex was just as frantic and messy as the first desperate kiss that lead to it. Clarke couldn't think about anything her brain switched to something more primal operating on pure need. She was also pretty sure they should've been more mindful of Lexa's many healing injuries, but the assassin herself didn't seem to care. There was a lot left to be desired as far as mind-blowing sex was concerned, but it was exactly what Clarke need. She hugged Lexa closer to her, the girl was still panting and so relaxed she was practically boneless.

“How's your arm?”

“You know, my wrist is actually kinda cramping.”

Clarke hit her with a pillow.

“I meant the bullet wound.”

Lexa was too busy laughing to answer, Clarke tried to glare at her in turn but couldn't keep her lips from twitching into a smile. Laughing Lexa was a sigh she could get used to.

As much as Clarke wanted to stay in that moment with happy Lexa in bed they couldn't stay forever. Much too soon Lexa rolled them out of bed insisting on a shower, which Clarke had to admit was more than necessary.

Clarke tried to suppress a yawn, as she zipped up her feel good hoodie. “It's only seven p.m. but I could go to bed already.”

“You can, I'll work out the rest with Aden and Roan. You've already done more than enough, Clarke.”

Clarke considered it, she was beat tired and Lexa's polite reminder that she didn't actually have a way to help was spot on.

She shook her head, “I don't want to be kept in the dark again.”

“I could tell you in the morning.”

“You mean after you and Roan already sneaked out during the night did something stupid and came back with fresh injuries?”

“See, we already have a working system,” Lexa joked.

“Funny.”

“I just think you should rest, you've had a long day…”

“You're the one who got shot.”

“And then I got the 'I'm so happy you're alive' sex, I'd say it was worth it.”

Clarke rolled her eyes “Come on we should check on Aden.”

~~~~

When Clarke and Lexa stepped out onto the hallway they heard Aden's frustrated shouts “No, no, no, why would you do that?!”

Roan's answering roar was even more disturbing. “This is un-fucking believable, you're fucking dead!

Lexa practically leaped down the stairs, Clarke close on her heal. What awaited them downstairs was a disturbing sight.

Roan's hair was in a honest-to-god man-bun. Aden and him were sitting across from each other on the floor. Each man had a computer on his lap and was fully focussed on the screen.

“What are you doing?”

“He's losing horribly.” Aden grinned.

“You're cheating! We're getting an actual cardboard board and then you're getting your ass kicked!”

“Where were you guys, it's been like there hours!”

“In the shower!” Clarke offered quickly and immediately felt the need to facepalm, that was a long time to be in a shower.

Lexa's answer wasn't much better as she stuttered her reply at the same time as Clarke. “Um we.. You, Food?”

Clarke could swear Lexa' s face was actually turning red.

Roan took mercy on them and announced their take out was in the kitchen.

“You might want to re-heat it, it's been sitting out there for a while,” he added with a smirk.

As they retreated to the kitchen they could hear Aden say. “You were right, they were definitely fucking.”

Lexa groaned and Clarke burst into laughter.

~~~~

Very few foods are as disgusting as cold, slightly moist fries, but Clarke chose not to comment on in because Lexa was turning out to be incredibly embarrassed about the situation. Clarke honestly didn't expect that. Lexa was usually pretty damn shameless but apparently as far as Aden was concerned she wanted to appear as a responsible adult role model. It would be hilarious if Clarke wasn't worried the girl would pass out from all the blood rushing to her face.

Even if she skipped the fries, the burger was pretty good and the preheated waffle with added whip cream also wasn't the worst, so all in all the meal was pretty satisfying.

“What do you mean, you already transferred the money?”

“The dinner had wifi and it wasn't like we had anything else to do?”

“Wait you already gave Azgeda back the money?” Clarke was certain that that wasn't the plan.

“No, I only took the money from Cage and his company before MtWeather's funds get frozen. And funded the account Roan can use to give Nia back some of the money Ontari stole. That coupled with the security footage of her and Cage should be enough to prove he was innocent. I didn't do anything you didn't ask me to do Lexa”

“Do your FBI friends know about this?” Roan turned to Clarke.

“I didn't even know about this until five minutes ago. So I'm guessing Lexa didn't want them to know, is this why you insisted Aden handles the surveillance in case “Cage has someone on the inside and we can't trust anyone.” Clarke thought out loud, watching Lexa's face for her reactions. The Assassin was smiling, taking the time to bite down the last piece of her own waffle before she explained.

“This conspiracy was really cross gang involved, FBI could've been dirty too… But yes. No offense Clarke, but your friends couldn't care less what was going to happen to Roan, they wanted him to sell out Nia and go to witness protection.”

“I'd rather get stabbed to death.”

Charming”

“Anyway,” Aden cut in, “as you all know I gave your FBI friends the information on the transfer from the company fund Cage used to pay the Griffins. But then I also backtracked the money to the hidden accounts Cage and Ontari used to fund the new drug and I used Cage's password to clean them out. MountWeather is definitely bankrupt now, just so you know.”

Clarke frowned, thinking over Aden's words. “So the plan is that Roan will just walk back home, proves that Ontari stole the money and he'll be welcomed back with open arms?” Clarke asked dubiously.

“First, we need to catch Ontari. None of us is safe as long as that crazy bitch is alive. Then I'll deal with Nia.”

Lexa shook her head. “She knows we're coming for her, she'll be keeping herself surrounded by Azgeda. Our best chance is getting your mother to turn on her… if she escapes we'll track her down, but going after her directly would be another bloodbath,” she looked at Clarke directly as she said the next part. “We'll not doing anymore unnecessary suicide missions.”

“Ontari isn't going to turn and run, she'll fight back, go after Clarke while we're busy with Nia.” Roan argued.

“So we'll lure her out,” Clarke spoke up. “Ontari want's Lexa to suffer more than anything, we just need to use the right bait. Me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are almost at the finish line folks, big thanks to all of you lovely souls still reading, your support is what keeps me writing even when times are tough and work schedule crazy. Thank you <3


	19. Together or not at all

_“We just need to use the right bait. Me.”_

Lexa felt like slapping the girl as soon as that nonsense left Clarke’s mouth. “Absolutely not!”

“At least hear me out.” Clarke pleaded, she even grabbed Lexa’s arm to keep her from exploding as she continued. “Its like Roan just said, she won't attack you without knowing she's sure to come out on top, she'll rather run or go after something you care about.”

“She can’t hide behind Nia for long, with the FBI all over this Nia will find out what she tried to do one way or another and then she’ll be lucky to get out of town alive, we could just wait it out...” Lexa contradicted. She couldn’t believe that she was actually suggesting such a cowardly plan but anything was better than repeating what happened with Cage.

“You want us to hide and hope Ontari gets taken care off ?” The disgust in Roans voice mirrored Lexa’s true feelings on going into hiding perfectly.

“The FBI has evidence against her and Nia will find out that Ontari started her own game so pretty soon she’ll have a target on her back maybe we’ll get lucky...” she added lamely. Roan looked at her like she lost her mind.

“When have we ever been lucky?”

“Yeah, and Ontari didn’t strike me as someone who would just let things go.” Clarke added. “Especially if she finds out I helped expose Cage. She'll be furious and killing me will be getting revenge on both of us so manipulating her into-”

Then Lexa cut her off again. “So I'll go deal with her and you and Roan will go to one of Trikru safe-houses. Now that Anya is on our side we can use them.” 

“I'm the one Ontari fucked over the most I'll be the one to kill her, you two can go to the safe house,” Roan barked.

“You will get shot before you get anywhere near her,” Lexa argued. “The whole city is still looking for you, Anya could only retract the hit on me,” she reminded.

“I was fine on my own for months I can get this done.”

Clarke rolled her eyes. “No one is going off on their own! We're a team!”

Lexa couldn't stop the warmth rising in her chest, Clarke thought of them as a team?

“How do you two still not get this?” Clarke asked in disbelief. “You both tried to do it all on your own and somehow you both ended up half dead in my living room. We are not repeating that!” Clarke finished her little speech with a significant glare to both of them.

Lexa sighed. There was something special about Clarke Griffin something that gave her the clearly supernatural ability to win any argument. For a couple more minutes she did her best to change Clarke’s mind about risking her life again and failed miserably.

_Oh so it's okay for you to risk your life but not me? Do you know how I'll feel if you get hurt because you were protecting me and I didn't do anything to help? She was fucking impossible._ So, against her better judgement, Lexa once again agreed to let Clarke get involved.

~~~oOoOo~~~

Some part of Clarke expected the magnetic effect Lexa had on her to disappear once they actually had sex, now she knew that it was a dumb hope, if anything the “Lexa effect” has gotten worse. They were all moving to Anya's secret safe house for then night, just in case Ontari decided to burn the house down while they slept or something. And all through the move Clarke was hyper aware of Lexa's presence around her. That one desperate, almost animalistic fuck had Clarke hooked on Lexa even more than before. Not that they had the time or energy to actually have sex again so Clarke had to settle for cuddling Lexa in the backseat of the car Their car was moving smoothly on the progressively emptier roads as they got away from the city. Clarke was happy to note that Roan’s driving was much more relaxed than Raven’s. Only odd thing that nobody else seemed to be concerned about was Aden, who was happily riding shotgun like they were on some kind of a road trip and not escaping crazy killer.

“Shouldn't we drop you off home, Aden?” Clarke finally asked.

“Oh no, I think I'll stick with you guys I wanna see how…” Aden stopped himself as he caught a glance of Lexa. “I mean, for safety, you know, safe house.. I should stay safe in case Ontari finds out I misplaced all that money, right Lexa?” The way he stressed the word safe every time made Clarke chuckle. She hid her smile with a fake yawn.

Lexa wasn’t impressed with either of them. “I'd rather keep him somewhere we can keep an eye on him,” she explained.

“But won't someone miss you?” Clarke asked, worried for him as well as about participating in a kidnapping.

“Nah I do this all the time. Well not this 'this', disappearing for a night.” Lexa squeezes her hand and although Clarke wasn’t sure if it was a 'I'll tell you later, mind your own business' or completely unrelated to the conversation: 'I like you' hand squeeze. She decided not to ask anymore for now.

~~~

The safe house turned out to be a nice little house in the country far removed from any people the nearest neighbors two miles away, Lexa informed them.

“We could torture someone here without worrying about neighbors calling the cops,” Roan remarked thoughtfully.

“Dude, no torture talk around the kid, that's a new rule!” Clarke jumped in before Lexa could expand on the idea.

“Does that mean we can take weapons to the house now?” Roan asked, making Clarke sigh.

“I can have more than one rule, you know.”

“But we already brought weapons to the house…” Lexa joined in.

“Uhh obviously were ignoring that rule until this is dealt with.”

“Ah good to know,” Roan huffed, clearly mocking her.

“Anya has weapons in the house anyway,” Lexa assured them.

They didn't have that many things to bring in so settling went over without much fuss. “Anya will come here in the morning, so nobody shoot her.” Lexa said tiredly while looking at Roan. “Oh and nobody goes to the basement.”

“Why?” Aden asked.

“Because if you do, I'll make your life a living hell.” Lexa replied coldly before continuing in a lighter tone. “Clarke and I will take the master bedroom upstairs, Aden will have the smaller room next to us and Roan and Friday will stay in the one downstairs. We need to head out soon so no more video games,” she added in Roan and Aden's direction.

~~~

Clarke considered questioning Lexa about the basement when they finally got some privacy in their room, but she was so tired and she trusted that Lexa would tell he if it was something important.

Once in bed they gravitate to each other, taking comfort in the others touch. The lights were off, Clarke had Lexa nestled next to her and suddenly the sleepiness lifted. She was still terribly tired but painfully awake at the same time. She didn't think Lexa was asleep yet either.

“I'm sorry about your knife, Indra said that we'll get it back once the investigation is over.” She whispered into the darkness.

“I'm glad you had it to protect yourself.”

“It was Costia's wasn't it?”

“It didn't help her.”

“We don't have to talk about this now if-”

“I wanted us to leave. We were both born to this life, she was Azgeda I was raised to be loyal to Trikru. But we always gravitated to each other. We started sneaking around, not for any espionage or to conspire against anyone just because my day didn't mean anything unless I talked to her… We knew it couldn't last, not in this town so after a few months we decided to leave, start over somewhere new where we could be just us. Costia wanted to go to college, she was so excited about us building a life outside of it all, I just wanted to be with her. But then the day we were supposed to leave she found that Trikru was going to strike against Azgeda.

We were at war then, although things have been at a stalemate for a while. That time Nia had one of our accountants kidnapped. She thought that we wouldn't find out it was her but we did and Anya threatened to go hit her hard unless the man was returned safely.

Costia and I didn’t know any of this, we were leaving. But then Titus came to give me my orders and Costia hid in the closet and heard everything, she heard that Azgeda would lose so much in one night over one spiteful kidnaping.

We went to the train station, the whole way there she kept asking me about the attack, _how long did I know, was there any chance Nia would submit to the ultimatum and return the man? Shouldn't we do something? All those people die because of Nia's pride…_ Finally she told me she couldn't do it. She couldn't leave her people, her sister, to die because of Nia.

I begged her to come with me. To only call Ontari to warn her. She told me I should go alone, that she'll catch up with me and she left. I shouldn't have let her go alone, I should've done something…” Lexa’s voice sounded so broken, Clarke’s own heart was hurting for her.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“Azgeda happened, I don't know how exactly it but Nia must have found out about our relationship and when Costia showed up to the garage the hostage was held at Nia killed her as a traitor. I got there too late, Costia was already dead and Nia nowhere to be seen. Titus found me weeping over her dead body. The hostage was dead as well, another fuck you from Nia. I don't remember much after that, only blood, everywhere and three days later everyone was calling me Natblida.”

“I'm so sorry,” Clarke struggled between wanting to hug Lexa closely and not let go and let her have her space.

“The story on the street was that I found out that Costia betrayed me and went to warn Azgeda so I killed her everyone else involved in the kidnaping except for Nia.” Lexa paused trying to recollect something but only shook her head after a while. “I must have killed a lot of people…but it's all a haze… all I remember is wanting to kill Nia and Titus stoping me from going. He said that it would be suicide but that we could hurt her back. Then it's all one a blur I remember bits and pieces but it all feels like a nightmare than a memory. Whatever we did the fact is that Azgeda almost ceased to be because of us back then.

I don't know how many people I killed. I told myself that they all deserved to die, because they were connected to Azgeda… because Titus said so. And when that stopped working I just forced myself not to think about what I was doing. Killing people is just a job like any other right?

I distanced myself from Trikru after that. Anya wanted me to stay and do something at a desk but I couldn't sit still. So I left. Became an independent contractor. Trikru sometimes helped me find clients but mostly I was on my own, traveling the world, taking one job after another…” Lexa’s voice trailed off and Clarke didn’t have the slightest idea what to say, that story was horrific and heartbreaking on every level.

Lexa broke the silence again; “So now you know.”

“I'm really sorry that happened, Lexa.” Clarke whispered, gently running circles with her thumb on Lexa’s hand.

“I understand if you change your mind about us.” Lexa said so quietly that Clarke had to strain her ears to make out the words. She considered Lexa’s words for a few incredibly long minutes.

“Do you think you could do something else?” she asked finally.

“What?”

“I don't care about the past Lexa, I want you… but I don't think I can live in this world of yours without loosing my mind. This stuff, it’s all really dangerous, you can get hurt or arrested at any time and I don't want to be worried every night that you won't come home.”

“Come home? Clarke, are you saying that you'll let me move in with you, if I retire?”

“I thought you already moved in with me…” Clarke whispered sheepishly.

“Oh… yes!”

“Yes, what?” Clarke asked, little lost in the discussion.

“Yes, I'll retire. I'll take a job mopping floors for your mother if it means we can give this a chance!”

Clarke chucked happily. “Please don’t do that. I don't want either of us to work for my mother after this is over.” She said and gave Lexa’s neck a little kiss as it was the closest area she could reach.

“So you're really quitting?” Lexa asked when no one said anything for a while, both just enjoying the newly relaxed atmosphere around them.

“Yeah, I wanted to for a while.”

“Good.”

~~~oOoOo~~~

Lexa woke up at dawn and carefully untangled herself from Clarke's embrace. She felt as if a crushing weight has been lifted off her chest. Clarke wanted her, she knew about Costia, she knew about Lexa's murder spree and she was still willing to give her a chance.

She quietly snuck downstairs, stopping in the kitchen to get some water and grab a small key that was hidden in one of the spice jars. Then she walked over to the basement. The staircase was well maintained and didn't make a sound as she descended to the small room which held a couple of piles of chopped lumber next to a massive steel door. Lexa unlocked it with the key and, taking a deep breath, she pushed it open.

Everything in there was more less as she remembered it. Steel table containing broad variety of knives and pliers as well as old car battery and a flame torch only thing that did change was in the middle of the room there hanging limp between two iron pillars was Titus in far worse condition than when Lexa seen him last.

“Anya did a number on you,” Lexa said, shutting the door behind her. “Now, it’s time for us to have a chat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading!


	20. Are we there yet?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience with this story, this is the last official chapter and it proved to be quite difficult to write.... but I finally managed it, so I hope you'll have fun reading!

Clarke once again woke up to an empty bed. Although a quick time check revealed that it was quite late but it still would've been nice to wake up with Lexa still in her arms, especially after the night they had. Letter she found Aden in the kitchen having breakfast alone.

She nodded at him in “Lexa?”

Aden shrugged. “Haven't seen her.” Clarke frowned. “Car's still here so she can't be far though,” he added.

Clarke sighed. “You'd think that but sometimes I swear that she can teleport.” She fixed herself a coffee and joined Aden. Then she caught a glance at his bowl and realized that he wasn't eating cereal as she first though.

“What's that?” She pointed at the spoonful of red-ish, meaty looking, substance the boy was currently delivering to his mouth. He finished the movement and while chewing whatever it was he pointed to the stove where a small pot of similar stuff was currently cooling next to two empty cans.

“It's goulash. You can have some, there's plenty.” Aden explained as he swallowed the goulash. Clarke did her best not to let her disgust show.

“Is that something you normally eat for breakfast?” she asked, quietly wondering what kind of a weird habit that was.

Aden gave her the look every teenager masters the 'look at this dumb adult, who doesn't understand anything' look. “It was here and it's warm,” he answered with a shrug.

Clarke eventually tried to take Aden up on his offer and poured herself some of the goulash but her stomach turned on her at the smell of it and she couldn't even force herself to eat the first spoon “How can you eat this right after waking up?” She asked, dropping the spoon back to the bowl, with a splash.

Aden in turn, looked at her like she was crazy. “You do know it's free right? Anya won't charge us.”

Clarke quite frankly didn't see how that was a benefit worth of eating such slob when there was a perfectly good bread left.

“So you really don't want that?” Aden pointed to her bowl hopefully.

Clarke didn't hesitate to push it towards him. “Go for it.”

“Yesss.” He cheered and Clarke though nobody should ever be so happy about such terrible food, but she was happy to see him so cheerful anyway.

“What smells so good?” Roan asked walking into the room a few moments later.

“Goulash,” Aden replied, he was already clearing both his bowl and the one he finished for Clarke. Roan wasted no time getting himself a bowl and Clarke watched in horror and fascination practically inhaled the large bowl he served himself, showing no hesitation or disgust. Maybe she was the odd one?

“What?” He asked, once he caught Clarke's staring.

“She thinks it's disgusting,” Aden rated.

“I never said disgusting!” Clarke defended because she didn't want to shame Aden's cooking even though it was probably lost battle on her part. “It's just… a lot, this early in the morning.”

“It's almost noon.” Aden pointed out, ever so helpfully.

“It's good.” Roan praised, the traitor. To be fair he did look like he was genuinely enjoying the food which was baffling to Clarke.

“Do you know where Lexa is?” she asked him after a moment, hoping to change the subject.

Roan arched his brows. “Aren't you the one sleeping with her?”

“She was gone when I woke up...”

Roan shrugged, “she's probably in the basement….”

They were all silent for a while, contemplating. Clarke was first to break the silence. “Isn't anyone curious why she told us not to go there? Should someone go check on her?”

“I'd rather not die yet, thanks” Roan replied just as Aden shrugged again. “She'll tell us if it's important.”

Clarke did trust Lexa, but she was also terribly curious. On the other hand, if Lexa and her really were going to try to have a normal relationship once everything was over damaging the growing trust between them so early on just wouldn't do.

“I'm letting Friday have the rest of this,” Roan said, taking the pot of the stove and placing it on the floor for the mewing creature. “Lexa should've come up if she was hungry.”

Clarke, didn't protest, the idea of kissing Lexa after she ate that was incredibly off putting anyway.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

Lexa wasn't happy about torturing Titus. She was angry with him yes but even more so with herself, because she trusted him. He trained her, he told her that Trikru was the only family she could trust and then he went on and betrayed all of them and for what, money, more power?

He answered most of the questions Anya had already. Claiming that the reason he set up Lexa was to get Anya to agree to go into business with Ontari, knowing that Ontari would never join work with Trikru as long as it supported Lexa in anyway and the money and opportunity to fuck over Azgeda too good to refuse. How could he do it to Lexa after everything they been through?

“You're still letting your heart dictate your actions, Lexa, it's your biggest failure really.” He said in a raspy voice.”To think how much more successful you could've been if things went differently. You could be running Trikru, if only you weren't so sentimental.”

“Sentimental? I let go of my revenge, I did everything you asked me to do! I killed everyone you told me to I…”

“You still don't get it. You are pathetic! Look at yourself, still seeking approval, still taking it personally that I tried to get you killed… It's not about you! It never was. You were a tool Lexa. Tool for me to use to cut Azgeda down when they were rising to power. Too weak to actually use the power of your position. You refused to kill Ontari when she went after you, you left Trikru instead of becoming Anya's protege. Getting rid of you wasn't personal, you simply became more trouble than you were worth. Is that what you wanted to hear, can you finally finish this, or are you too weak to kill your old mentor? Too useless to dispose of the man who tried to kill you?”

“I want to know what happened to Costia. I was thinking about it and you got to the garage awfully quickly that night and you already knew everything… How did you know I was there? How did you know Nia killed her and the hostage?”

He laughed in a strangled sound “Are you so desperate to drag this out that you want to go over all your failures?”

“Answer the question,” Lexa said coldly. “It wasn't a coincidence, wasn't it? You were already there you let Nia kill her.”

Titus shook his head and when he spoke his voice was filled with disappointment, “oh Lexa. Nia wasn't even there when Costia died. You think I didn't know you were trying to run from us, trying to leave your family for an Azgeda whore?” Lexa's blood ran cold, all of the sudden it all made horrifying sense. Titus must have known Costia was there when he came to give her the orders, must've been monitoring their plans somehow he manipulated them… Just like he taught her. Always separate your target, try to get them alone leave no trace unless you want to.

“You see Lexa? This is where sentiment gets you, you get played. Love is weakness and you are never going to succeed if you let your feelings dictate your actions.”

“Where are you going. Are you too weak to finish what you started?”

Anya was coming soon, they were to kill him together. Then the image of Costia's dead body flashed before her eyes. Then again why wait? Three closely kept bullets found their way to his chest.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

It was a cold evening, only forty-eight hours after Roan and the other's settled on their plan and the weather decided to screw them over by raining as they all took their positions.

Roan was relieved to see that Nia carried on in her habit of arriving early everywhere and even more relieved that she stupidly didn't change her security routine so they avoided her people easily. They were at high end restaurant and Nia was already comfortably seated at one of the VIP tables, not just any table, the corner table, far from the exit but close to the kitchen back exit, right next to the window so she could monitor anyone entering.

Random observer wouldn't call her anything other than stoic or possibly bored but Roan knew better. He could tell that she was unsure about the meeting. Next to her, was her bodyguard for the day, Roan recognized him immediately, Jack. Roan actually kinda liked that guy or to put it more precisely he didn't have the urge to punch him in the face whenever he had to work with him so hopefully they wouldn't have to kill him.

He was watching Nia's table through a slit in the kitchen window to the dismay of most of the kitchen staff. His presence was only barely tolerated because of the short overly cheerful man Clarke introduced as her uncle who seemed to know everyone, he was also sitting in the restaurant now, on the other end of the restaurant. He wasn't backup so Roan had no idea why he was still hanging around.

Over all he wasn't too happy about how they were handling things. Clarke was risking too much for too little. Speaking of Clarke. She finally entered the restaurant, dressed in one of her pantsuits and letting the hostess show her to Nia's table. Roan watches Nia give Clarke one of her fake smiles she reserved for influential people she wasn't ready to intimidate just yet. That was overall a good sign. She believed Clarke could be useful. However she didn't rise from her seat or made any effort to shake hands, Clarke sat down across from her without giving off any sign that she found Nia's behavior odd.

“No sign of Ontari yet.” He hummed into his microphone.

“Then keep the line clear.” Natblida chided him instead of confirming that there was nothing on her end as well. Well someone was testy this evening.

This night was Ontari's one chance to stop them before Nia learned she is a traitor and sicks the rest of Azgeda on her, and because Lexa and him already killed most of her supporters she wouldn't stand a chance. If she has any common sense left she would be running with whatever she could carry. Though, common sense wasn't something Ontari was known for so Roan fully expected her to show up.

He watched Nia's expression scrunch up as she flipped through the documents Clarke gave her. She folded her hands defensively. What, was it hard to believe that her own child wasn't a traitor and a coward? Roan wasn't surprised. Disappointed and wishing for a drink, yes, but not surprised. Well, it was time for the video. Surely enough Clarke was already passing her phone. Nia's expression hardened. There it was. Ontari wasn't coming back from this. She must've had some sense after all and ran for it. Then a sound of static drilled into his ears from the coms, almost deafening him.Then came Lexa's voice, yelling “stop this Ontari,” and then more static noise. Roan cursed. Why couldn't things ever go according to the plan?

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

On a rooftop across from the restaurant sat Lexa. She had her riffle ready and aimed at Nia long before Clarke made it to the table. She watched them talk and Nia's disbelief as Clarke started clearing her son's name. Lexa was itching to pull the trigger. Years of fantasizing about killing Nia were hard to get over, especially when she was doing her best to intimidate Clarke. But they weren't on a revenge killing spree anymore, there has been more than enough bloodshed. Besides Lexa promised Clarke to keep the casualties to the minimum. She didn't see or hear anyone approaching her she only catches the shadow the raised hand with a gun throw as it got between the lights of the neighbor in the very last second. She rolls quickly and a bullet digs into the concrete, missing Lexa's head by a thread.

Ontari wastes no time shooting again but Lexa's knife is already piercing into her dominant hand. Lexa wasn't known as the deadliest contract killer around because she was slow. Ontari, forced to drop her gun, howls in pain. Lexa jumps her before she has a chance to reach for another weapon. She forces Ontari to the ground using her full bodyweight to keep her grounded.

“Stop this Ontari! She wouldn't want this!” Ontari stilled in her struggle to free herself which encouraged Lexa to continue. “I'm not going to kill you. You can still run, start over somewhere new, for Costia.”

“How dare you talk about what she would've wanted!” Ontari hissed and with a forceful twist that must have done painful damage to her already injured arm, flipped Lexa off her. Lexa just barely managed to use her own knife to fend of Ontari's own blade from gutting her. The blades clashed.

Ontari yelled, “I trusted you with her and you were only using her!” Lexa kicked Ontari off of her, so she could get to her feet and face Otari who also rose from the floor. “Nia wouldn't let me get revenge and now that I finally found a way to get back at you, you use another girl to get what you want! I'm not letting you get away this time!” Ontri's voice got winded as she followed each sentence with another attack.

Lexa deflected Ontari's blows one after another backing away. Although Ontari was clearly skilled fighter she wasn't using her dominant hand and her moves were too angry to be precise. Lexa could kill her easily. But did she really want to kill her? She took another step back. “It wasn't me Ontari! I would never hurt Costia! It was Titus he did it to manipulate me!” she yelled, almost dancing backwards to avoid getting stabbed by the feral girl.

“Liar!” their blades clashed again. Ontari was going after Lexa's neck this time and the assassin had to block the attack and deliver a hard kick to the girls shin to give herself an escape route to get past Ontari and away from the roof's edge.

“Just think about it Otari!” Lexa cried out. She couldn't stop seeing Costia's ghost in Ontari's angry features, she game here tonight prepared to kill Ontari to protect Clarke but now that she was here, all she could see was Costia. How disappointed she would be that Lexa let Titus manipulate her so, how she would hate Lexa for hurting Ontari when all she wanted was her sister back. Lexa made a mistake, as she changed the direction of their high stakes dance she forgot to account for the gun Ontari dropped earlier, and she only realized it when Ontari already picked it up and cocked it. Lexa curled her fingers on her knife, could she throw it faster than it would take Ontari to press a trigger? Ontari's eyes were gleaming, they both know Lexa wouldn't have time to make the shot.

“I'm going to kill you, and then am going to kill that Griffin bitch of yours.” She smiled cruelly, letting her words sink in. Lexa wouldn't let that happen, if she was to die here she was taking Ontari with her… Then everything stopped. The puff of a gun with a silencer felt loud to Lexa's ears. Ontari went down instantly, the clean shot to her head killed her instantly. Lexa turned to her side where few steps away stood Roan with his weapon still raised. She released a breath she didn't even know she was holding, “Nice shot.”

He nodded and came closer, giving Lexa a once over and came up frowning. “You're bleeding.” Lexa looked down, sure enough, her thigh was bleeding. Some of Ontari's blows were more successful than she realized.

“It's just a scratch,” she dismissed it.

“The Doc, is going to love that,” Roan huffed.

 

~~~oOoOo~~~

Clarke got the meeting with Nia using her grandmother's name to bait the mob boss on her family's fortune. Naturally Nia was less than happy when Clarke strolled in and revealed what was the real purpose of the meeting, but she got interested again when Clarke offered her a complex file of Ontari's treachery, only asking that she calls of the bounty on Roan and leaves both him and Lexa alone, provided that they cease their attacks on Azgeda. Clarke knew that Roan was covering her from the kitchen and Lexa was in position on the roof but she still felt nervous in Nia's presence. The woman was terrifying and her bodyguard was actually physically present unlike Clarke's invisible shield of Lexa's rifle.

“What's in this for you, miss Griffin?”

“What do you mean? I want you to let Roan go I just proved to you that he had nothing to do with that money going missing so seriously it's the least you can do for him.”

“Exactly, my son's life. I don't see how that benefit you or your family?” Nia asked coldly.

Clarke's first instinct was to tell her that Roan was family, which was such a strange notion that she stopped herself from voicing it. It was true, Roan and Lexa were “her people” now just as much as Raven or Octavia. “I'm looking out for Roan, it has nothing to do with my family.”

“You and my son?”

“Are friends. Now, call off the bounty you have on him and we can talk about Ontari.”

“I'll take care of Ontari. And you'll make sure the FBI won't see these files? All in exchange for my son's life?”

“And freedom.” Clarke reminded. “ You won't force him to stay with Azgeda unless he wants to.”

Nia smirked “So this is Anya's play, she sends you, you clear Roan's name and he switches sides like the coward that he is.”

“Why do you care who he works for, you obviously don't care about him,” Clarke questioned, this time too upset with Nia's callousness to be more careful with her words.

Nia narrowed her eyes, but Clarke also noticed that the bodyguard's lips twitch in amusement.

“I care about him, I simply have standards I expect him to meet. Roan knows this.” Clarke didn't start screaming at her for being a heinous bitch which should truly be considered as a reason to congratulate her on personal growth.

"Where he chooses to go is up to him and you'll let him leave if that's what he wants,” Clarke continued calmly. “In return, you get all of our materials on Azgeda's involvement in this unfortunate business venture and as a show of my gratitude I have bonus offer for you.”

“And that would be?”

“Ontari. I'm assuming you'll want her dead now. Well, odds are that she is already on her way out of the city and your resources for the hunt are limited because of the events of the past few days. So lets say that I know someone who could kill her for half the money you were willing to give for Roan. Pretty good deal for you, especially since you still need to root out all the traitors from your organization.”

Nia didn't look thrilled with Clarke's generous offer. “You are suggesting that I pay the money to my son for getting his revenge? Why would I do that when he'll already go after her for free?”

“He's joined forces with Natblida now, and I was lead to understand that this amount would be standard for her on this sort of job. As far as killing Ontari goes you're looking at it the wrong way: If Roan and Natblida kill her for the fun of it the word will spread, everyone will know that Ontari played you and you did nothing to get back at her. And you must know that there isn't anyone you could hire who would get her faster than those two…. So really, you need to give them the money, if you want any parts of your reputation salvaged.” Nia looked like she was killing Clarke in a thousand different ways in her head and Clarke hoped that Roan and Lexa were ready to intervene should Nia decide to act on those fantasies.

“Well, do we have a deal?” Clarke asked when the silence got uncomfortable long. Nia agreed, but glared at Clarke the whole time as they went over the specifics. Clarke could see why everyone hated Nia, she was quite a psychopath from what she could tell but she did call off the hit on Roan then and there, which took quite a ball of stress off of Clarke's shoulders. Now all they needed to do was hunt down Ontari.

 

~~~~

Of course it turned out that Ontari was already dead when Clarke was making Nia agree to pay for it. Clarke didn't feel particularly bad about it but it also meant that they had to split up again, since Clarke wasn't allowed near the body. In the end she was forced to hitch a ride with uncle Steve while Lexa and Roan did whatever it was they needed to do to move the body.

Clarke was worried about Lexa, who was acting strange ever since she emerged out of the basement the previous morning, she barely said a word about anything that wasn't plan related since then. To be fair, Clarke was also busy trying to work things out with her family so maybe Lexa was just stressed and they would be okay now that everything was over.

For now she was sitting in the passenger seat of uncle Steve's car as the man drove her to her house,and listening to him chat about anything and everything. She nodded along as he mouled over the food quality at the restaurant. They both knew that he was just filling the silence before they worked up to talking about the main topic, Lexa. Uncle Steve already knew more about Lexa's true identity than Clarke since he did that research into MountWeather and then helped set up the meeting with Nia. He didn't even blink when Clarke asked him if he could arrange for Roan to hide out in the kitchens. But he was bound to have more questions now, and Clarke didn't know how to answer any of them. However when he did approached the subject of Lexa it wasn't in the way she expected.

“So if you really are sure about this Lexa girl, you two should probably take her to visit grandma again.”

“Why?”

“She might have a job for one or both of you. It depends on what you intend to do with the rest of your lives, really.”

“Does she know I quit my job?” Clarke asked, growing suspicious that Steve was the one to tell her.

“There was a shooting at the office building of Griffin industries of course she knows, the whole family heard really.” Clarke groaned, she completely forgot that part of her adventure was public scandal.

“How much does she know?”

“I didn't tell her about your meeting with the crime boss.” Steve cut to the core of her question and then added, “Although she'll probably hear eventually.”

“Don't stress about it kid, if you and Lexa need help getting started, she'll help. If you want to runaway with your girl and start an antique shop somewhere that's fine too. Screw what anyone else says.” The list of relatives who wouldn't approve flashed through both their minds. “You're my favourite niece, I'm behind you one hundred and ten percent, kid.”

“Thank you.” Clarke said, meaning it from the bottom of her heart. And after a moment she added: “I don't want to have an antique shop, though. Maybe an art gallery”

 

~~~~

It was after two a.m. when Clarke Lexa and Roan made it back to the safehouse they are all exhausted but when Lexa sends Aden off to bed (because of course he stayed up waiting for them to return) Clarke finds out that once again she was running around with a flesh wound without a second thought and rips into her for her carelessness, to her horror Lexa starts crying Clarke doesn't know what to do so she just holds her until she's coherent enough to explain.

“It was Titus. He killed Costia. I din't know, I should've… but I was so stupid Clarke! How could I have been so stupid? And Ontari is dead and Costia would hate me so much Clarke. You should hate me too,” she whispered lastly, breaking Clarke's heart with how desperate she sounded. “I blew up your life, I destroy everything I touch, you'll be better off if I-”

“I don't hate you, Lexa,” Clarke cut her off. “I could never hate you. You are so strong and so smart and as for 'my life,'I wouldn't call what I was doing before I met you living. I was surviving. I got up every morning, went to work, then back and so on sometimes Raven and Octavia dragged me out but looking back on it now it was all complete rut until you showed up and reminded me that I actually care about things, people. Fall in love….” Clarke stopped herself before she made a fool of herself with out right declaring her love for the girl. “And before that I was engaged to a guy who ran out on me without a second though and I just gave upon the idea that anyone could pick me just for me, until you showed up and gave me that look, the one you're giving me right now, the one that makes me feel like you would pick me, always.” Clarke didn't know when she started crying too but tears were rolling down her eyes, she was such a mess. And she probably didn't even make Lexa feel any better.

“I will, always pick you, Clarke. It's really unfortunate for you, since I'm such a disaster and everything, but for what it's worth, I love you.”

Clarke kissed her, craving the connection more than anything. Then she pulled back abruptly, Lexa searched her face in confusion. “I love you too,” Clarke said quickly and pulled Lexa into another kiss. They were going to be okay. They loved each other and they would figure out everything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This went a little darker than I wanted but I promise that the epilogue (coming sometime in the following week) will be all fluff and humor. 
> 
> In the meantime you guys can check out oneshot I cowrote with the amazing AngrySapphicHeda, its a fun clexa college au  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/20026807
> 
> You can also come say hi to me on tumblr, I'm starsunderwater on there.
> 
> Or just tell me off in the comments, in any case thank you very much for reading, all of your support meant a lot to me <3


	21. Epilogue

The worst thing about Lexa is how incredibly annoyingly efficient morning person she is. Clarke usually wakes up to an empty bed and has to go and drag her girlfriend back to bed, away from whatever she was doing, just to get some quality morning cuddles, which sometimes turn to morning sex, which then turns to more cuddles and then Lexa pretends to be annoyed that she's late for work.

The first few months of them dating things were understandably different, and not just because they were having a lot more sex. Back then Lexa still woke up early but she would stay in bed, watching Clarke sleep or even go make coffee and then bring it to Clarke so they could laze around the bed all morning together. And they would do just that since neither of them had a job to get to, but then the honeymoon period ended, and they adapted a real life routine consisting mostly of Clarke sneaking up on her girlfriend and pestering her to go back to bed.

On this particular morning Lexa is still in bed cuddled in Clarke's embrace, snoring adorably, and Clarke doesn't want to move because it would risk breaking such a rare moment.

It's been around ten months since they got together and one could hardly find a night which they didn't spend in each other's company and still Clarke could spend hours trailing Lexa's sleeping form with her eyes without getting bored. She has also taken to sketching Lexa, especially in their first few months when they had little to focus on than each other.

Settling into their new, domestic lifestyle came with its own challenges. At first Lexa kept treating Clarke like she could go off at any time, like she wasn't sure Clarke would change her mind and ask her to leave at a moments notice. Getting her to understand that Clarke actually wanted to keep her was difficult and long process and on some days Clarke suspected that Lexa still didn't fully believe it.

It was the way Lexa would look at her every time Clarke went out of her way to make Lexa more comfortable in their suddenly domestic lives. Like when she rearranged her studio so Lexa would have a place to sit and read on the window nook or the time she collaborated with Anya to throw Lexa a surprise birthday party, Lexa always looked at her like she couldn’t quite believe everything wasn't about to dissolve in puff of smoke. Clarke never said anything about it and those looks slowly turned from insecure to looks of pure love and adoration.

“Are you watching me sleep?” Lexa asks without opening her eyes.

Clarke choses to use the fact that her touch can no longer disturb Lexa’s sleep and nuzzled her neck softly, “Maybe.”

“Weirdow.”

Clarke playfully nibbles at her neck before hissing; “Hypocrite.”

“I’m a private investigator, creeping on people is part of the job, so when I do it its just me staying in form.”

“That makes no sense.”

“You’re usually not this sharp in the morning, did you sneak out for coffee without me noticing?” Lexa mocks, while pretending to frown.

“I can wake up without coffee, you know; I'm not as hopeless as you make me sound.”

“Hmmm so I see.”

They exchange few more lazy kisses but just before things can get more interesting Lexa pulls away.

“What time is it?”

Clarke gives her her best estimate while kissing down Lexa's chest. Lexa groans. “We need to get up.”

“Uhhh do we?” Clarke asks dubiously.

“Uhm,” Lexa hums. “Food to cook.”

Clarke crawls back up and starts kissing her lips but she doesn't get distracted.

“Presents to give.”

“Friends to pick up.”

“Parent’s to call.”

Lexa lists in between kisses.

“Snowmen to build and Coffee to make,” Clarke adds, kissing Lexa one more time. Lexa arches her brow.

“I thought you didn't need coffee to wake up?”

“I was obviously bluffing.”

“I’m shocked.”

~~~oOoOo~~~

Lexa didn't celebrate or acknowledge Christmas in years, even as a child she never quite got that magical day most kids looked forward to all year. It all seemed rather stupid and pointless, she was going to tell Clarke so too but then Clarke started blasting Christmas songs and dancing around the house in nothing but a longer shirt and that stupid Santa hat. Suddenly Lexa thought that maybe she could get into the christmas mood after all. Things only spiraled from there.

After the music, came the Christmas movie night with Raven and Octavia, which apparently was a tradition and Lexa was too happy that things were finally going smoothly between her and Clarke’s friends to question the holiday. It was nicer than Lexa expected it made Lexa wonder what she missed out on and if spending Christmas with Clarke would be anything like the overhyped holiday promised. They were going to laze around all Christmas Day, then go visit Clarke’s parents in the evening, no big deal. Then Roan came to stay with them and let it slip that he never did christmas, which naturally put Clarke, bless her kind soul, on a mission to get him to like Christmas and forced Lexa to admit that she also had no great love for the holiday. Clarke was determined to shower Lexa in Christmas traditions after that. So things snowballed from there and now Lexa and Clarke have actual decorated tree in the living room, and had stayed up late the previous night baking christmas cookies, all of their friends were set to come over to celebrate the big day with them.

Sadly, that means that they don't have time to stay in bed all morning but if Lexa is being honest she is excited to do all of the things Clarke promised they'd to. She keeps it to herself because she doesn't want Clarke to know how easily she folded her reserves to the holiday.

They are surprised to find Roan and Raven talking at the kitchen table while snacking on the cookies as they enter the kitchen.

“Raven! When did you get here?” Clarke asks, slightly confused because Raven usually liked to sleep in.

“I'm an early bird!” Raven answers with a wink and proceeds to giggle at her own pun.

“Clearly, are you here for us or the free food?” Lexa asks, eyeing the plate of cookies Raven is hoarding.

“Hey, I brought some of Monty’s patented eggnog so I more than deserve some of these. Speaking of, Lexa, you seriously need to sell these you’d make a fortune.”

“She’s been here for thirty minutes,” Roan complains dryly.

Raven turns to him, “At least I have my own place,so I'm not completely mooching off them like other people!”

“I'm not the one using Clarke's gallery opening to steal food and hook up with her investors.”

“You clearly eat more than enough,” Raven smirks.

“You calling me fat?”Roan growls.

“Play nice kids!” Lexa orders, rolling her eyes. She looks to Clarke for some support but her girlfriend is fully focused on watching the coffeepot fill, muttering how its too fucking early for these two. So Lexa shrugs and leaves them to insult each other while she stands next to Clarke to wait for the coffee.

It is nothing new, whenever Roan and Raven crossed paths it was always the same pattern of bickering, Lexa knows that they both probably enjoy it more than they let on, doesn't change the fact that it was incredibly irritating for everyone else.

Clarke hands Lexa her mug of coffee, they exchange tired looks as, the silent; we need to change the subject, clear without saying anything. Lexa nudges Clarke's hip with her own playfully. They both know that If it was up to the ex-assasin she’d tell them to go fight it out outside and don't come back until they’re ready to shut up, approach her girlfriend sadly doesn't approve of one bit.

Clarke sighs but does eventually speak up to change the topic. “Why don't you take Raven to play with the kittens, Roan?” It works like a charm.

Raven perks up at the mentioning of kittens, the argument instantly dropped. “I forgot you had kittens, how have I not cuddle with one yet?!”

“They're at Roan's room,” Clarke says bit sheepishly, noting the way Roan glares at her for daring to bring up the kittens in front of Raven.

Roan was hilariously possessive of Friday and her babies since they were born and Every time someone brought up that to him that he would have to give some of the kitties away he either changed the subject or protested that it was too soon to talk about.

“Go on, we need to start getting the food ready for tonight.” Lexa joins in, daring Roan to argue. Her support isn’t even necessary because Raven is already on her way out of the kitchen and Roan has no choice but to follow.

“You know Raven's going to steal at least one kitten and I'm not going to be the one listening to him whine about it when that happens.” Lexa says, as she starts gathering the ingredients they’ll need.

The kittens came as a surprise to all of them. Roan made a big deal about them not looking out for her enough while he was traveling when it turned out that they returned Friday to him knocked up. Then he claimed that since it was all their fault and the babies needed a medical professional to look after them it would be for the best if he stayed with them until 'Fri' had the kittens and they were big enough to move. Clarke protested that she wasn't a doctor nor a vet but everyone ignored that. Lexa suspected that Roan’s reason to wanting to stay with them was more closely connected to him getting bored of being on his own. However that theory was yet to be fully confirmed.

Clarke shrugs, taking another sip of her coffee. “You work with him so I think you might have to hear about it at least a couple of times. And Raven is going to be so happy if she gets to keep one.”

“Did you plan all this with everyone coming over just so we could distribute the kittens to our friends so they’d all stay in the family?” Lexa asks, suddenly suspicious that her girlfriend was playing them like a violin. But Clarke laughs and shakes her head and steps up to her.

“No, were doing this because I really wanted us to enjoy Christmas,” then she pulls Lexa into a brief kiss before she pulls away to add: “all of the babies staying close is just a bonus.”

Lexa nods, but one thing is still on her mind. “We are keeping Archer though right?” Archer was the only boy out of the four kittens and the black dots around his eyes slightly resembled Lexa’s camouflage paint pattern, he was calmer than his sisters except for his habit of pouncing at them when they slept, Lexa liked him best.

Clarke smiles, they talked about getting their own cat when they returned Friday and since the kittens came along there was an unspoken agreement between them that they would try to keep one. “I already asked Roan.”

Lexa grins, although there was no way Roan agreed to the request right away if both of them pestered him enough then…

“He said, yes.”

“He did?” Lexa finds it very hard to believe. “They guy who said he only way he was giving the kittens up was over his dismembered corpse?”

“Because you told him he couldn't keep all of them!”

“Where's the difference in you asking him to give one to us?”

“It's a huge difference Lexa, were family, I asked if he'd be okay with us taking care of Archer since you two are so fond of each other and he agreed.”

“Where was I?”

“Sleeping on the couch, with Archer on your neck like a tiny scarf, it was incredibly adorable.” Clarke moves away from Lexa to go back to prepping the vegetables.

“You took a picture didn't you.”

“Maybe.”

“Did you send it to Raven?” Lexa asks and Clarke was suddenly very interested in chopping the vegetables into perfect squares.

Lexa curses under her breath. Clarke had a habit of ruining her coldblooded criminal reputation by distributing somewhat embarrassing pictures of Lexa to her friends, she would complain more but in turn Raven and Octavia actually did relax around her and even taken to sending Lexa funny pictures of Clarke from their drinking nights.

~~~

Later that day when the food is done and mostly eaten and all their friends are crammed in their living room, Clarke and Lexa are culled up in the armchair, Clarke in Lexa’s lap with her feet thrown over the armrest. It's a total chaos in the best way, the four kittens are crawling over themselves to play with the shiny ribbons of the presents arranged under the tree, while Friday supervises.

Clarke is falling asleep in Lexa's arms and Raven is hugging Roan because he just reluctantly agreed that she could keep one of the kittens. Lexa can't really hear what Raven is saying to him, not over the loud shouts coming from the group huddled by the tv, the ongoing Mario Kart tournament where Aden and Anya’s team is beating Lincoln and Octavia terribly, is much too noisy for that. But Lexa is happy to just sit back and soak it all in. It's unbelievable how much everything in her life changed in less than a year. To think that it all started by her screwing up a job, getting shot and hit by a car… But if that's what it took for Clarke to find her and keep her, it was well worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it folks! I hope you enjoyed the story. As some of you know, I have some scenes I didn't get to use in the main story so Il'l be posting them as little ficlets in the Finders Keepers series so subscribe to that if you are interested. 
> 
> I can't express how grateful I am for for all of your support and lovely comments, I was blown away by your support every step of the way, I could never finish this without you, all of you are truly amazing!!! <3 May we meet again :)


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